(Even hair was perplexed)
For all the spin, analysis and hand-wringing going on over our economy of late, we often forget it got a start somewhere. Fingers often point in the direction of the 80's where conflicting stories abound, but it's a good bet that the "supply side" theory of the economy had something to do with it.
As this episode of Face The Nation from May 29, 1988 illustrates, Treasury Secretary James Baker just couldn't break himself away from his rose colored glasses, even for a minute.
James Baker: “I noticed the intro to your program, the “yes, but . .” – but if I may say so, people have been out there saying “yes, but” since the spring of 1983. They’ve been telling us that “yes, things are okay now, but the wheels are gonna fall off, the economy’s gonna go in the tank, and it hasn’t. And it is not going to.”
Leslie Stahl: “How long is it not going to?”
James Baker: “Well . . .well into the foreseeable future. Well into the foreseeable future”
Yes, well into the foreseeable future - hopefully the future where nobody will notice what happened in the 80's. Hopefully by that future, some miracle will magically occur and all our economic woes will vanish. Or all those practitioners of Voodoo Economics will be dead, senile or too in-disposed to care.
Welcome to the future.
