The Failures of Reaganomics and Neoliberalism

Polemic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, language: English, abstract: President Ronald Reagan promoted and passed into law provisions of an economic plan that came to be known as Reaganomics. The principles of his plan were based on the neoliberal economic theory originally developed by Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig Von Mises of the Austrian school of economics. The major principles followed by Reaganomics were as follows: 1) totally free markets, devoid of government intervention are the best way to promote economic growth and personal freedom, 2) the government should refrain from any interference economic matters, 3) taxes should be kept at as low as possible to stimulate economic growth, 4) government regulations should be eliminated except those that ensure contracts, 5) government should not own businesses or property and should privatize those that it does own, and 6) international trade should be promoted by removing all tariffs and quotas. Laws and policies based on neoliberalism were passed from 1981 through 2008 in the US and have had influence on the national economy down to the present. Based on analysis of economic results and political developments during the period this paper argues that Reaganomics and neoliberalism have failed to improve economic growth and the preserve personal freedom above that provided by of the Welfare State which has developed in the US and OECD countries for more than a hundred years. Furthermore the neoliberal agenda is highly correlated with the undesirable unintended consequences of a rapidly rising national debt and balance of trade deficit.