FROM MALAISE TO CONSERVATIVES RISING

Today, I want to review the state of the American economy in the late 1970s

It was not good

The takeaways from this first half of the lecture are:

In the immediate moment: STAGFLATION

A destructive combination of inflation and high unemployment

Immediate cause of this immediate problem wastThe shock of rising oil prices

America, for the first time, was forced to pay the world price for oil

Americans also pursued guns and butter at the same time: Vietnam and Great Society

But there were deeper structural causes of this economic suffering

Declining productivity

A growing trade gap

These factors were the product of having to compete with the rest of the world for the first time since before WW II

And perhaps the most “Macro” of all “macro factors was America’s shift towards a service economy

This meant increased incomes for folks in the emerging digital world

For finance

It meant hard times for anybody in manufacturing

IN the second half of this lecture we will try to understand the nature of conservative thought in the late 1970s and early 1980s

The Pillars of conservative thought turned on:

A return to trust in the “free market”

This meant an attack on big government, especially government regulation in the environment

A second pillar was an aggressive foreign policy, that led to a higher military spending and intensification of the Cold War

In contrast to Richard Nixon’s policy of “détente” and his opeining to China

And finally, a belief in traditional instutions for solving social problems:  family; religions institutions

Ronald Reagan capitalized on all of these factors

And added his own special talent at projecting a sunny, optimistic tone to his searing criticism of everything that came before him

He convinced a large number of Ameriacns that indeed, it was once again, morning in America

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