President Reagan’s Legacy To Endure
By George Anderson
As the nation mourns the loss of former president Ronald Reagan, many are now looking back to assess his impact in economic terms.
According to an Associated Press report, Mr. Reagan’s policies redefined “economic conservatism and recast government’s relationship with business and labor in ways that are still very much in effect today.”
Some credit the former president’s decision in 1981 to fire striking air traffic controllers as the catalyst behind a change in labor/management negotiations and a decline in union membership.
Moderator’s Comment: What do you think will be President Reagan’s legacy on the economy and business?
While we must count ourselves among those who agreed with George Bush’s “voodoo economics” assessment of Mr. Reagan’s economic policy, we have to give the
former president credit for reenergizing the spirit of American business.
His predecessor, Jimmy Carter, was widely criticized for making his “malaise” statement. As we see it, Mr. Carter was right. The genius of Ronald Reagan
was his understanding that the nation was looking for someone to remind us that there was a way out of it. That is what made him a leader that will be remembered as one of the
great figures of the past century. –
George Anderson – Moderator