Editing Reaganomics (section)

{{Short description|Economic policies of Ronald Reagan}}
{{Distinguish|Political positions of Ronald Reagan}}{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}
[[File:President Ronald Reagan addresses the nation from the Oval Office on tax reduction legislation.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|Reagan gives a televised address from the [[Oval Office]], outlining his plan for [[tax cuts|tax reductions]] in July 1981.]]
'''Reaganomics''' ({{IPAc-en|r|eɪ|g|ə|ˈ|n|ɒ|m|ɪ|k|s|audio=En-us-Reaganomics.oga}}; a [[portmanteau]] of ''Reagan'' and ''economics'' attributed to [[Paul Harvey]]),<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/28/AR2009022802096_2.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Broadcaster Delivered 'The Rest of the Story' |access-date=March 1, 2009 |date=March 1, 2009 |first=Joe |last=Holley |archive-date=February 17, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110217050212/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/28/AR2009022802096_2.html |url-status=live }}</ref> or '''Reaganism''', were the [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]]<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Springer |editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last=Birch |editor2-first=Kean |editor3-last=MacLeavy |editor3-first=Julie |date=2016 |title=The Handbook of Neoliberalism |url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Handbook-of-Neoliberalism/Springer-Birch-MacLeavy/p/book/9781138844001 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 3], [https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA65 65], [https://books.google.com/books?id=M5qkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA144 144] |isbn=978-1138844001 |access-date=October 10, 2020 |archive-date=October 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020154754/https://www.routledge.com/The-Handbook-of-Neoliberalism/Springer-Birch-MacLeavy/p/book/9781138844001 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gerstle|first=Gary|author-link=Gary Gerstle|date=2022|title=The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?cc=us&lang=en&|location=|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|pages=121–128|isbn=978-0197519646|access-date=July 29, 2022|archive-date=June 26, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626220259/https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?cc=us&lang=en&|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bartel|first=Fritz|date=2022|title=The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism|url=https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976788|location=|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|pages=18–19|isbn=9780674976788|access-date=August 9, 2022|archive-date=August 9, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809023730/https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674976788|url-status=live}}</ref> [[economics|economic]] policies promoted by [[United States President|U.S. President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] during the 1980s. These policies focused mainly on [[supply-side economics]]; however, opponents (including some Republicans) characterized them as "[[trickle-down economics]]" or '''Voodoo Economics''',<ref name="Roubini-1997"/><ref name="Voodoo_economics-2004"/> while Reagan and his advocates preferred to call it [[free market economy|free-market economics]].

The pillars of Reagan's economic policy included increasing defense spending, balancing the federal budget and slowing the growth of [[United States federal budget|government spending]], reducing the [[federal income tax]] and [[capital gains tax]], reducing government [[regulation]], and tightening the money supply in order to reduce [[inflation]].<ref name="nisk_concise">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Niskanen |first1=William A. |author-link=William A. Niskanen |editor=[[David R. Henderson]] |encyclopedia=[[Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]] |title=Reaganomics |url=http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Reaganomics.html |year=1992 |edition=1st |publisher=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |access-date=August 29, 2013 |archive-date=April 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415021108/https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Reaganomics.html |url-status=live }} {{OCLC|317650570|50016270|163149563}}</ref>

The results of Reaganomics are still debated. Supporters point to the end of [[stagflation]], stronger [[GDP]] growth, and an entrepreneurial revolution in the decades that followed.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2004-06-20/reagans-economic-legacy|title=Reagan's Economic Legacy|magazine=Bloomberg Businessweek|date=June 21, 2004|access-date=July 2, 2018|archive-date=June 26, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626061110/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_25/b3888032_mz011.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader|author=Dinesh D'Souza|pages=124–125|date=1997|publisher=Touchstone|isbn=0-684-84823-6}}</ref> Critics point to the widening income gap, what they described as an atmosphere of greed, [[Great Regression|reduced economic mobility]], and [[National debt of the United States|the national debt]] tripling in eight years which ultimately reversed the post-World War II trend of a shrinking national debt as percentage of GDP.<ref name="U.S. Debt"/><ref>{{cite book|title=The Conscience of a Liberal|author=Paul Krugman|date=2007|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-06069-0|url=https://archive.org/details/conscienceoflibe00krug}}</ref>