Posted on 08/22/2006 10:51:02 AM PDT by mcvey
A seeming epidemic of greed and self-absorbed materialism had spread through the country. Wall Street witnessed a rash of arrests and convictions . . . .
And more government officials, including Attorney General Edwin Meese, became entangled in the web of corruption. Commentators talked of a compulsive materialism energizing the . . . professionals dubbed Yuppies. Caught up in the race for money, goods, and status, these baby boomers in the fast lane captured the tone and mood of affluent life in the 1980s.
Then on October 19, 1987, the bill collector suddenly arrived at the nations doorstep.
--snip
The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted . . . an astounding 22.6 percent.
--snip
What caused such a goring of the bull market?
--snip
But most [analysts] agreed that the . . . problem was the nations spiraling indebtedness and chronically high trade deficits. Americans were consuming more than they were producing, importing the difference, and paying for with borrowed money . . . Foreign investors had lost confidence in Reaganomics and were no longer willing to finance Americas spending binge.
--snip
For the first time, [Reagan] indicated that he was willing to include increased taxes in such a package. Yet the eventual compromise plan was so modest that it did little to restore investor confidence. As one Republican senator lamented: There is a total lack of courage among those of us in the Congress to do what we all know has to be done.
George Brown Tindall and David Shi, American A Narrative History (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004) Brief Sixth Ed., pp. 1188-1189.
Yes and the same type of people are now creating a "poor economy" out of 4.8 % unemployment.
It is all in the spin.
REVIEW
Marty Schwartz' book Pit Bull, as well as my own little effort, have some, er, choice comments about various phases of mkt action that day.
You know, we have used Tindall and Shi off and on for years. I think its the best of its type and keeps me below the radar.
But I can point to numerous places where I do know things and it is wrong and always on the left side of being wrong.
I think some things are so emotional for writers that they let myth get in the way.
The odd thing is that what may have been a very technical correction, aided by technology not quite under control, may have actually helped the market.
In any instance, there seems to have been no backing off of foreign investment and no, as you put it, "malevolent" greed.
Which burns my fanny.
Meese was exonerated and the text is written so that students will believe he is rotting in Sing Sing or some similar place.
Dear DSD:
Trust me, most of them are worse.
You should read the hatchet job done in Eric Foner's textbook--which I have been able to stave off using.
Here's a little story: we all get to agree on a textbook for history. But our far far leftist wanted something to her taste, so she created an American Studies course so that she could use Zinn's People's History.
I may be building a course around historical bias. Which will royally p*ss off my colleagues.
"Finally, commentators who use any problem in free market-oriented, democratic countries to justify their basically cynical world view are just revealing their prejudices."
Trust me . . . they would be happy to admit that they are prejudiced (for the common good, of course.)
Paul Johnson is anything but a liberal academic.
His problem here is that he is not particularly an economic historian.
And he is very dependent on his researchers.
But he is the best overall, except for LS--whose textbook my department would NEVER buy.
McVey
Whoops!! I know that, but I didn't realize LS was referring to Paul Johnson with that comment. Slap me on the head and remind me not to rush through the thread so fast.....
Whatever happened to the book on American history by Thomas Bailey (of Stanford, iirc)? That was our US history textbook in high school.
Do you teach at a college or a high school or a middle school?
ping
Absolutely. The theory was that part of his deal was secret testimony that nailed Milken.
It's my understanding, based on the "Predator's Ball," the inside story of the junk bond era, that Boesky did provide evidence that at least began the conviction of Milken. (What tipped it was that the feds had Milken's brother on some minor charge).
But I wasn't referring to a lib---I was talking about Paul Johnson, who has the money supply exploding in the 20s (prices fell, and it never kept up with mfg. growth), then simultaneously blaming the Fed for constricting credit. (He's right there).
Actually, at the high school level (not yet exposed at the college level) there is widespread plagiarism, as many of the same bots work on all the texts!
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