“We weren’t always a nation of big debts and low savings: in the 1970s Americans saved almost 10 percent of their income… It was only after the Reagan deregulation that thrift gradually disappeared…, culminating in the near-zero savings rate … on the eve of the great crisis. …”
— Paul Krugman, Reagan Did It, blaming the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act, which Reagan signed in 1982
“Close but no cigar,” says Bill Fleckenstein.
“The actual offending cancerous legislation that kicked off the move toward extra reckless lending did involve then-Rep. Fernand St. Germain, a Rhode Island Democrat. But the problem legislation was the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of March 31, 1980…….”
Reagan’s real mistake was appointing Greenspan.
“Greenspan did it, aided and abetted by almost everyone in the regulatory apparatus who abdicated their responsibility.”
— Bill Fleckenstein, on Paul Krugman’s latest one-note samba (Paul’s finally over his crush on Dubya, it seems..)
The federal Reserve Act did it. Those that came later simply abetted it, notables including FDR for his gold heist and Nixon for putting the final nail into the Gold Standard…then every FED administration since then for the enormous inflation since 1971. Note to Al Gore, there’s your hockey stick.
Yes…if you’re looking at fundamental causes..
for proximate culprits, Greenspan and Nixon will do