🚀 go-pugleaf

In <AHALL.94Dec1074033@remus.cs.uml.edu>, ahall@cs.uml.edu (Andrew Hall) writes:
>
>>>>>> Yabba Dabba Dude writes:
>
>   Yabba> In <rayD03JIE.EMn@netcom.com>, ray@netcom.com (Ray Fischer)
>   Yabba> writes:
>   >> In article <D03AD2.KHs@mcdata.com>, Yabba Dabba Dude
>   >> <fredw@mcdata.com> wrote:
>   >>> dnh@mfltd.co.uk (Des Herriott) writes:
>   >>> William_Mosco@vos.stratus.com (Bill M.) writes:
>   >>> lewis@lumina.mitre.org (Keith Lewis) writes:
>   >>>> fredw@mcdata.com (Yabba Dabba Dude) wrote:
>   >>
>   >>>> [ what great things did Reagan achieve? ]
>   >>>> 
>   >>>>> * Greatest economic expansion since WWII.  FACT
>   >>>
>   Bill> Without trying to balance the government's budget; an
>   Bill> unlikely thing to come out of a republican white house.  his
>   Bill> was a first, and out of the norm when dealing with government
>   Bill> and economics; it was irrational.
>   >>>  Reagan has the best record of economic indicators for ALL
>   >>> post-war Presidents.  Boy, I see your point, this is
>   >>> irrational!
>   >>  BFD.  Making the economy _look_ good by borrowing
>   >> $3,000,000,000,000 and distributing it among the already wealthy
>   >> is no great trick.  You can do the same.  Just run up your
>   >> credit cards.  Of course, the bill will come due eventually.  In
>   >> the case of the national debt, it's now about $20,000 per
>   >> person.  This year about $1000 of your tax dollars will do
>   >> nothing but pay interest on that debt.
>
>   Yabba> Hello.. RAY.. anyone home ?  If I run up my credit card, how
>   Yabba> much I'm in debt depends on my assets.  If I run up $10,000,
>   Yabba> but I have real estate worth 1 mil, big deal.  The GDP is a
>   Yabba> resonable indication of assets, and the deficit as a percent
>   Yabba> of GDP dropped during the 7 fat years from '83 to '89.
>
>So what?  What counts is what happened to the DEBT as a percentage
>of GDP.  Guess what?  It skyrocketed.

First of all, explain why DEBT % GDP is a better measure of the Reagan
years as opposed to DEFICIT % GDP.  Second, "skyrocket" is a little
strong and alot of bias.  I'm sure you have the same numbers as I do at
your disposal.  So let me play with the numbers:  From '87 to '89, the last 
3 of the 7 fat years, the DEBT % GDP grew only slightly from 53% to 55.9%.  
From '90 to '92 however,  the increase was more dramatic from 58.7% to
69.5%.  Both the DEBT % GDP and DEFICIT % GDP jumped significantly after
the Dem-Bush deal of '90, bringing the Reagan-Volker boom to an end.

Yabba