I live in Chicago and noticed that one of the freeways I drive on is called “Ronald Reagan memorial tollway”. Who is Ronald Reagan?
Much more damaging to the president’s political fortunes was a steep recession that began late in 1981 and soon became the most severe since the Great Depression. Reagan’s economic policies were not responsible for the downturn; few of them had yet had a chance to have an impact on the economy. But the administration did little to fight the recession once it began. Reagan took his lead in part from Paul Volcker, the strong-willed chairman of the Federal Reserve Board (appointed by Jimmy Carter), who considered inflation a more serious threat to the economy than recession. Volcker’s policies of high interest rates had been one of many causes of the recession, and his slowness to reduce the rates was one reason the recession became so severe. The recession was particularly devastating to American industry. Manufacturers had been suffering from the high interest rates for several years. High rates made it difficult to borrow and invest; they also made the dollar expensive in world markets
