Was there an economic boom at anytime during the 80s?

[curse10]

I was a yougun' back then, so I'm not sure.

When was the last economic boom before the Clinton administration?

[Langis]

1. Wasn't there a boom

For the top 5% of wage earners? I was young then as well and really have no idea.

[htuttle]

2. LOL!

Not in the Great Lakes region!

I saw Milwaukee go from a middle-class, blue collar city, to something that looked more like post-WWII Warsaw in the space of a few years.

No, there was no boom in the '80's that I saw. I made a lot of money driving a cab in the late '80's, but that was due to a crack epidemic, not an economic policy (although it appears likely that the government was behind both...).

[LoZoccolo]

5. How does a crack epidemic...

...translate into more money driving cabs?

[htuttle]

7. It's a weird micro-economy

Made a ton the week the Stock Market crashed in '87, too. That was probably one of my best weeks ever.

[Jerseycoa]

3. I was there

But I either missed the boom or the boom missed me.

[junker]

4. stagflation dude, stagflation.

don't you recall? chaos at the fed. monetary and fiscal policy a jumbled up mess.

But, the beginnings of the stock resurgence in 1987 as the newly installed, soon to be god, ALLAN GREENSPAN started the liquidity pumps as the dollar crashed resulting in the largest one day (percentage wise) drop of stocks ever (until next month).

But, we had years of high interest rates, stagnant housing, low job creation, et cetera....read the secrets of the temple to get the flavor....

[Bombtrack]

19. we had stagflation in the 70's

unless my economics teachers are lying

there was a boom in the 80's, and like this recent one it was spurred by defense spending and tax cuts, accompanied by deficits and a shrinking middle class

[DUreader]

6. There was a boom for the S&L Republi-Cons

leading to a real estate bubble

[Julien Sorel]

8. Decide for yourself:

%Change GDP

1980q1 1.3
1980q2 -7.9
1980q3 -0.6
1980q4 7.3
1981q1 8.0
1981q2 -2.8
1981q3 4.9
1981q4 -4.6
1982q1 -6.5
1982q2 1.7
1982q3 -1.9
1982q4 0.3
1983q1 4.7
1983q2 9.8
1983q3 7.3
1983q4 8.5
1984q1 9.0
1984q2 7.0
1984q3 3.5
1984q4 3.1
1985q1 3.4
1985q2 3.2
1985q3 6.1
1985q4 3.3
1986q1 3.7
1986q2 1.7
1986q3 3.8
1986q4 2.1
1987q1 3.0
1987q2 4.3
1987q3 3.4
1987q4 7.1
1988q1 2.7
1988q2 4.8
1988q3 2.1
1988q4 5.3
1989q1 5.0
1989q2 2.2
1989q3 1.9
1989q4 1.4


'Boom' might be pushing it, but the years between 1984 and 1988 look pretty good.

[bobbyboucher]

9. Are those annual rates,

of growth? If so, I don't hink 1984-1988 was all that impressive. Wouldn't you have to add all four quarter and divide by 4 to see the annual?

[billbuckhead]

11. But it wasn't a good time for the middle class.

It still isn't.

[Julien Sorel]

14. Close, but it would be a little inexact. Here:

%chg GDP

1980 -.2
1981 2.5
1982 -2.0 (I remember during Congressional elections, Reagan gives 'Stay the course' speech to stem the damage. I was hoping he was toast come the election. But...)
1983 4.3
1984 7.3 (Reagan crushes Mondale)
1985 3.8
1986 3.4
1987 3.4
1988 4.2 (Bush Sr. defeats Dukakis)
1989 3.5
1990 1.8 (Iraqi War I; Bush Sr. at 80%+ approval rating)
1991 -.5 (Bush Sr starts looking vulnerable)
1992 3.0 (Economy recovers, but too late to save the hapless George Sr. who is, nevertheless, an improvement over his godawful son)
1993 2.7
1994 4.0 (A chubby intern with a cute smile catches Bill Clinton's eye for the first time...)
1995 2.7
1996 3.6 (Clinton decisively defeats Dole)
1997 4.4
1998 4.4
1999 4.1
2000 3.8 (Bush II. Everyone knows the details.)
2001 .3
2002 2.4
2003 ???


So the 83-89 period was very good on an annualized basis. Boom? I don't think there's a textbook definition, so you get to make that call.

Notice, by the way, how perfectly the timing worked out for Reagan: two lean years, followed by two of the fattest years our economy has known, and right when the election cycle was kicking off. Think anybody remembered 1981-82 during the election? Maybe those of us who didn't like Reagan, but nobody else cared. If the first three quarters of this year are any indication, Bush II is about to benefit from similar fortune.

[Yupster]

20. Great table Billy

thanks

[leftofthedial]

23. they are trying to follow the same pattern

they wrote lots of blank checks to juice the economy in time for the campaign season. lots of collusion with their corporate co-conspirators.

[curse10]

10. thanks!

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but from the numbers it looks pretty lousy

[tritsofme]

12. The 80's were a good time for me,

I came away with a good sum of money.

I think there were nearly 20 million jobs created.

It was the longest period of peace-time economic growth to date, that is until Clinton came along and we enjoyed the longest period of economic growth ever.

[DUreader]

15. 'peace-time'? Afghanistan, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada...

I'm sure I'm forgetting some

[tritsofme]

16. Then by your standards we havent experienced

"peace-time" since the 1930's.

For all practical purposes, the 80's were relatively peaceful when compared to other decades in the 20th century.

I rarely see the 80's referred to as a war-time economy.

[Zomby Woof]

13. a debt-based boom

The 60's were the last real boom before the 90's.

The 80's was like getting rich off credit cards, or if you were a CEO, a takeover/merger/acquisition kind of wealth was accumulated, based on someone else's debts.

[the_real_38]

17. It was bought on margin...

... just like this one - Reagan just cut taxes, and that created economic growth offset by huge deficits. We paid for it later with a recession.

[tritsofme]

18. A large portion of the run-up in the stock market

in the 90's was based on margin as well, and a whole lot of people got burned when the bubble burst.

I'll always believe that Greenspan should have raised the margin requirement when it was so hot.

[Yupster]

21. Not to mention

a good deal of the run up in the market during the 90's wasn't even real. It was created by fraudulent accountants running the numbers.

[evil_orange_cat]

22. good GDP growth, wages stagnated... rich get richer, everyone else screwed

plus, Reagan cut taxes for the rich in one year, and spent 8 years raising taxes on everyone else... also, his policies forced state and local governments to raise taxes

Sure, the 80's were a period of economic growth. But not for 99% of America. :(

[curse10]

24. I'd just like to say

this is the longest a thread of mine that has ever stayed in GD without dropping off the face of the earth! who knew?