For those old enough to remember, the 1980's were consumed by periods of high unemployment, high inflation, and devastating interest rates.  The national debt was almost $1 Trillion.   Interest rates were in the high teens and inflation was equally high.President Reagan, in a national debate, asked the devastating rhetorical question which haunted then President Carter, "Are we better off today than we were four years earlier?"   The answer to the question was intuitively obvious to the most casual observer at the time and is believed to have had a significant effect on the outcome of the presidential election that year.Unfortunately, since the1980's, the impact of continued deficits under both parties, systemic undermining of American industry,  and the wholesale degradation of our nation's critical infrastructure, have combined to yield extremely high unemployment, recklessly low interest rates, and volatile and unrecognized inflation.The...(Read Full Post)