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economics of the reagan era


            Book Report on The Politics of Rich and Poor; Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath by Kevin Phillips.
             The accusation that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer is a common theme among those discussing the Regan era. Kevin Phillips decides to present this statement also, but in a unique way by comparing the Regan era with two other important periods in American history, the post Civil War Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties.
             There are twenty-eight to thirty-six year cycles that occur with regard to economic policies, according to Phillips. With each cycle comes new perspective and new ideas about wealth distribution. During cycles when conservatives are in charge there are typically trends of redistributing wealth among the top of the social and economic ladder, while liberals tend to redistribute in the other direction. It was a trend of redistributing wealth upward during that time that led to the rich prospering while the middle class and poor seemed to suffer. Prior eras where conservatives where in charge, such as the Roaring Twenties and the Gilded Age produced the same results. Phillips uses examples of how the policies of the Regan administrations were similar to those of previous republican eras. In all three there were drastic cuts in income taxes, restructuring of the economic and corporate systems, and high real estate interest rates. The two previous eras were filled with questions about the possibility of the United States developing a large debt, which were finally realized in the 1980's. The deregulation during the Reagan era is comparable to the relaxation of the antitrust laws during the 1920's. Phillips claims the governmental policies of all three eras culminated in mini-crashes of the stock market.
             These approaches to an old thesis begin to grow tiresome. The reader begins to wonder what the relevance of prior administrations to what occurred during the 1980's.


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