Reaganomics... just the facts. A series of charts from MSNBC..Opinion?

[LittleApple81]

http://www.msnbc.com/modules/reagan/interactives/Reaganomics/default.asp

[Goldom]

1. They open with one looking like he's a miracle,

don't show the bad side unless you get into the later charts... what more would you expect from the media...

[keithyboy]

2. Reagonomics? Just asked the people who survived it!

If you really want to know what it was like, ask me.

[whistle]

3. The GDP trends appeared to be totally linear during the Reagan and Bush I

...presidencies and that upward trend began in the Carter administration. Inflation did come down as the charts indicate. But Ronald Reagan's economic policies in spite of what his advisers claim, was pure Keynesian economics, high rates of government spending primarily on military weapons systems, tax cuts, again primarily for the wealthiest Americans. Also, didn't we experience a major stock market crash in 1987? How about the S&L fiasco and the real estate bust? I thought that happened at the end of Reagan's 2nd term too. I don't recall mortgage interest rates being that low (4%) during the Reagan years and in fact when we tried to get a mortgage for a new home in 1992 the rates were well over 10%. One of the big changes brought by Clinton when he took office was to bring interest rates down and by 1994 I was about to re-mortgage at a rate of 7% and cut my payments down by several hundred dollars a month. The charts are okay, but the scales may be off a bit.

[LittleApple81]

6. Those mortgage rates did not exist under Bush 41. I wonder why

they portray them like that. It looks like in 92-93 it was 1%. Weird.

[readmylips]

4. I remember college kids, high degrees, etc.

could not find jobs anywhere. Interest rates were sky high, the deficit had ballooned (remember Time Square Deficit Clock?). Mental health hospitals were closed. Mental health patients became homeless, and given a couple of pills to take on their own. Many were Vietnam vets. Many are still the same homeless we see today, who are mostly suffering from severe mental illness.

Reagan was a good president per the republicans, but history and the facts show him as a heartless man.

[Indiana_Dem]

5. Yes I graduated in 1982.

I could not get enough money/help for college and I couldn't find a job. I had to move to L.A. where my father lived and I still had a hard time finding a job.

Then a few years later I came back to my hometown, found a job in a factory and then the company closed and reopened non-union.

Finally, under Clinton, I was able to go to college with some grants and became an R.N.

Growing up I was the child of a single mother on bouts of unemployment intertwined with bouts of welfare---all under Reagan. We hurt pretty bad and it was no fault of mine. My mom fed us on hot dogs and popcorn. She never drove a Cadillac, it was a Gremlin.