KEYNESIANISM FOR THE WEALTHY (a.k.a. Reaganomics)

Former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman affirms what many of us have been saying for years in this NY Times piece. He makes primarily two points. First, we're riding yet another Federal Reserve financial bubble. Second, President Reagan's irresponsible deficit spending and tax cuts for the rich policies laid the groundwork for George W. Bush's failed policies. 

Stockman explains why he left President Reagan's team in 1985, and how those reasons are tied into the failed policies of President Bush:

The destruction of fiscal rectitude under Ronald Reagan — one reason I resigned as his budget chief in 1985 — was the greatest of his many dramatic acts. It created a template for the Republicans’ utter abandonment of the balanced-budget policies of Calvin Coolidge and allowed George W. Bush to dive into the deep end, bankrupting the nation through two misbegotten and unfinanced wars, a giant expansion of Medicare and a tax-cutting spree for the wealthy that turned K Street lobbyists into the de facto office of national tax policy. In effect, the G.O.P. embraced Keynesianism — for the wealthy.

For my money, Stockman gains extra points for explaining how the Federal Reserve is helping to bankrupt the nation, and for earlier going after Paul Ryan's delusional budget math. 

In all cases it's clear that President Reagan's former budget director sees only one side of America (the rich) gaining from the tax and spending policies that began under his former boss, President Reagan (and he helps support former Bush Treasury official Bruce Bartlett's tax piece too).

Read the article if you have the time. It explains much of what is wrong with America's economy, and how it started.

- Mark