The Sixth Great Supply Side Periods

Larry Kudlow, conservative commentator, lists Six Great Supply Side periods, of which the sixth is the current economic disaster we call the Bush Economic Plan. Let's look at some of the earlier periods to see what we might need to get ready for.

1). Ulysses S. Grants presidency (1872?). Of course Grant's presidency is remembered also for scandal. After all, check out this passage from an essay by an Illinois Junior High School Student.

Grant is often accused of failing as a president because of the many scandals and the corruption that marked his presidency. The federal government's corruption was, for the most part, due to the spoils system. Because Grant was unwise in his appointments within the federal government, many of those under him proved themselves untrustworthy. Although Grant was not personally involved in any of these scandals, he is blamed because he stood by those people.

2). Presidents Harding and Coolidge (1921 to 1928). Of course again we have the spectacle of corruption. As the White House website comments on President Harding, "By 1923 the postwar depression seemed to be giving way to a new surge of prosperity, and newspapers hailed Harding as a wise statesman carrying out his campaign promise--"Less government in business and more business in government."

Behind the facade, not all of Harding's Administration was so impressive. Word began to reach the President that some of his friends were using their official positions for their own enrichment. Alarmed, he complained, "My...friends...they're the ones that keep me walking the floors nights!"

Looking wan and depressed, Harding journeyed westward in the summer of 1923, taking with him his upright Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover. "If you knew of a great scandal in our administration," he asked Hoover, "would you for the good of the country and the party expose it publicly or would you bury it?" Hoover urged publishing it, but Harding feared the political repercussions.

He did not live to find out how the public would react to the scandals of his administration. In August of 1923, he died in San Francisco of a heart attack. "

Also, shortly after the Harding and Coolidge Administration (within a matter of months, really) we have what has come to be known as the Great Depression.

The third Period was under JFK (1961-63). Not much to say there--everybody wants to connect their ideas to JFK. Funny how the fifties are remembered a time of incredible prosperity, and then JFK institutes his policy of Supply Side Economics and we get the seventies--but of course that was LBJ's fault.

The Fourth Period was under Ronald Reagan (of course). I'm not going to comment on any scandals in the Reagan administration, but I will comment that his economic policies did empty out the budget.

I'll just quote Kudlow here. "The fifth was -- if you can believe it -- Bill Clinton's second term." Not sure I can believe it--but since Kudlow isn't offering any evidence, I guess I have no choice. But once again we see that the economy tanked right after Supply Side theories were put into place. And didn't Clinton go through some kind of impeachment scandal his second term?

So now that we have our Sixth Supply Side President we know what to expect--a scandal ridden administration and a despression/panic. Something to look forward to.

Of course this is all based on the flimsiest of threads. So don't be surprised if I am wrong.