<ot> Dear Jay - thanks for the link to Mr Kudlow's commentaries. I will try to get to that. However, Sam was right. The father of airline dereg was Prof Alfred Kane [of Columbia U?] under President Carter. Additionally, again, Sam was right that President Carter was the one who appointed Chairman Paul Volcker. The latter administered some bitter medicine. By President Reagan 1st term, it hit the inflection point and the stock market took off. My take on the fall of unionism was not so much of defeating PATCO, which has been a scapegoat for many left and right forces [I mean, while people complain about their ability, they are not even given the up to date tools to work with - they are still using the 360 technologies!] Rather, like GM, powerful unions were slow to see the chain reaction of economic seachange dated back to the oil embargo and continued to demand more for less. It is not unlike the rumblings in Germany right now. As an aside, I m not a union buster. On the contrary, knowing the working conditions in many SE Asian sweat shops, it is not a bad thing to have collective bargaining. When the union has become too big, too corrupted or too unrealistic, its days are numbered.
No matter, you are right that every administration likes to assume that glory of accomplishments. Since some are inherited while others are unrealized, all in all, all is even <VBG>. But face it, President Carter took the lump on China. Still, President Reagan has made the best of his moments [it helps to have evocative speech writers like Ms Peggy Noonan.] So, all in all, all is even.
best, Bosco |
