Universe On The Couch

The eighties had a clear beginning: The election and inauguration of Ronald Reagan. The landslide victory over Jimmy Carter showed Americans had had enough of both an afraid to stand-up foreign policy and stagflation. He announced it's 8AM in America and time to get down to work. The hostages were released during the inauguration itself.

The beginning was rocky. Fed Chairman Volker aggressively raised interest rates to control inflation. This led to another recession and job losses. Then there were plenty of cuts in the budget, at least for social programs such as education. He then set about record deficits to build up the military. He was going to win the Cold War. And he did.

Unfortunately, he set the record for deficit spending. Fate would forgive him on this, setting a terrible precedent for the future. He added to the deficit with tax cuts to stimulate the economy. It appeared to work as over time the stock market and economy as a whole did quite well. Inflation got under much better control. people were back to work. People, especially higher on the demographic curve, were making more money.

Technology took off. The PC was the big issue. Considered not all that useful except for big institutions, the new microelectronics of the integrated circuit from the 70's allowed individuals to create their own computers. Now viewed as quite primitive, limited and bulky, they invaded homes and businesses. A whole new group of enteprenuers created a new way of work and play. And they got very rich doing it. Microsoft and Apple werre the two biggest stories here.

Yuppies werre the big social phenomena. The Boomers again. After the sixties of free love, LSD and political change to the seventies of casual sex, party drugs and "self-growth;" they turned to coupling, nesting, raising only children, caffiene, money and consumer status symbols. Of course this is a big generalization as before.

This fast-paced decade would go turbocharged in the nineties.