Back to the 1960s

Notice that that earlier run-up, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, accompanied the Great Inflation set off by the Johnson-Nixon administrations and their monetary policies, which turned our dollars into dimes. Then the curve was bent downward by the Carter-Reagan discipline and Reagan's tax cuts, in a splendid boom that last until the Bush administration. (The recent, and scarier, blowout is actually a Bush-Pelosi-Obama phenomenon.) Chart from the Wall Street Journal. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford