The start of the crisis

There’s no argument that we are in a severe economic bind — the worst in more than 75 years. The administration is getting a great deal of the blame for the problem — most of it is well-deserved, but not all. The roots go back to 1981 and the advent of supply-side economics — a nice way of saying “trickle-down.� President George H. W. Bush called it “voodoo economics,� and the architect of the policy, David Stockman, later renounced it. Nevertheless, the Reagan administration implemented it with giant tax cuts for business and the rich (a massive upward transfer of wealth) and the goal of deregulating the economy and weakening unionism. The national debt was less than $2 trillion. After 28 years of supply-side, the debt has passed $10 trillion. Were it not for the eight Clinton years, it would be much higher. We had the best chance of averting the current disaster in 2001 by continuing the successful Clinton plan that was producing large surpluses. ...