March 13, 2025
Ronald Reagan also had a slow economic start
By Jeffrey Wright
I have many conservative friends who live in Washington, D.C., some of whom worked in the Reagan administration. They revere Ronald Reagan, and who on our side doesn’t? Reagan ended the cold war, restored patriotism in America, and presided over “Morning in America.”
But not so fast. Some don’t remember that Reagan’s first two years saw severe economic pain, as Reagan and his Federal Reserve head, Paul Volcker, applied some serious tough love to help the country recover from the disastrous Jimmy Carter era of stagflation and other economic ills.
Reagan and Volcker embarked on a plan to rein in Carter-era inflation. The 1981–1982 recession, one of the most severe post–World War II, stemmed from the combination of a tight monetary policy implemented by the Federal Reserve to combat inflation and the aftereffects of the 1979 energy crisis. The federal funds rate, a key interest rate, reached a peak of 20% in June 1981. This high–interest rate environment led to a decline in business investment and consumer spending, contributing to the economic downturn. The unemployment rate peaked at 10.8% in December 1982, the highest level since the Great Depression.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/03/ronald_reagan_also_had_a_slow_economic_start.html
