...Carter just had the misfortune of being too mean to Congress, and starting to drink the deregulation juice of doom...
O come on. In what way were Carter's deregulations not a resounding success? The Staggers Rail Act saved the railroad industry from collapse and prevented everything from going Penn-Central. The Airline Deregulation Act has meant vastly cheaper, competitive fares that have enabled more and more Americans to see the country while charging the airlines for services they use, and the Motor Carrier act declogged interstate trucking, allowing faster, more responsive and more efficient road-haulage. The Depository Institutions act enabled removed price controls on interest rates paid to depositors, enabled savings and loans and credit unions to issue checking accounts, and the Regulatory Flexibility Act forced regulatory agencies to be more intelligent and considerate in the way they operated.
These measures have contributed countless billions to American growth and productivity, and while it is true that today's conservatives continue to seek to replicate those gains though further deregulation, it certainly doesn't follow that those gains are to be had at this point. The 1970s economy had indeed become burdened with regulatory frameworks which were outdated and unresponsive, and that needed to change.
It's one thing to say that a current measure might be ill-advised or not worth the cost, it's another to his at the notion that reducing government interference in economic calculations is always and everywhere bad
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