Quote:
Originally Posted by Laker14
Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981, so the first fiscal year (FY) he budgeted was 1982 and the final year was 1989. During Reagan's presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion.
The above is not a political statement, it is historical fact. "Those who fail to remember history....."
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I believe we were talking about inflation, not the national debt, which, for those keeping score, now stands at close to 30 trillion. But you're right, though. Reagan and Tip O'Neil are responsible for about 6% of that, because Reagan refused to inflate the money to pay for the freebies and foolishness that Tip refused to cut from the budget, like Reagan requested.
Between you and me, I'd prefer a world where debts are paid with real money, because it means I get paid for my savings.
For the 75 years before Obama turned the Fed's Magic Money Machine up to "11", to pay for a housing crash that Washington created, you could get 4.25% in any federally-insured passbook savings account at any bank in the country. But now that we Boomers need a safe investment, we're lucky we you don't have to pay the bank to hold our money, and if we hope to keep up with inflation, we're forced to play stock market roulette in the Wall Street casino.
Inflation matters.
It would help if the average American understood that inflation everywhere and always is the result of printing money. It seems like such a simple concept -- if you have too much of something, it's worth less. But the minute you mention this obvious property of the universe in the context of inflation, suddenly everyone retreats to their political bunkers.
It makes it tough to fix anything when we can't even agree on the properties of the universe we live in.