Dear Editor:

Joe Grant’s letter in the 8/25 issue of the Boothbay Register errs in neglecting to mention that it was President Carter who appointed Paul Volcker to chair the Federal Reserve Board. The Fed’s monetary policy under Volcker pushed interest rates to over 20% putting the brakes on inflation and cooling the economy.

Reagan's “conservative” fiscal policy worked at cross purposes to the Fed’s monetary policy in that Reagan's deep tax cuts and expansive military spending resulted in high federal deficits that persisted until the Clinton administration.

I place the word “conservative” in quotes because it has become a cover for robbing workers of their rightfully earned place in our economic system. There is nothing conservative about that.

The legacy of Reagan and his “conservative” fiscal policies have contributed to the slow death of the American Dream while benefiting the wealthy elite.  

Since the Reagan years wages have stagnated, pensions and benefits cut for the average worker. The cost of healthcare, education and housing have far outpaced worker’s earnings. While the economic elite have enjoyed their golden parachutes and multi-million dollar paydays, the safety net that kept workers out of poverty in hard times has been shredded.

Financial deregulation has exposed workers and consumers to economic predation while Wall Street prospered. For example it was the “conservative’s” financial deregulation that set the stage for the 2008 economic debacle that left millions of jobless, gutted the savings of millions more and resulted in the foreclosure of millions of homes while Wall Street elites were bailed out. “Conservative” misrule has introduced us to the economic concepts of the “race to the bottom” for wages and “jobless recoveries”.

In a juxtaposition of history, the Fed is again fighting inflation by jacking up interest rates while the Biden administration is working at cross purposes employing inflationary fiscal policies. Volcker demonstrated that inflation is manageable, if inconvenient.

What is important is that we rescue wage earners from decades of “conservative” misrule and restore the American Dream because that’s what made America great.

Fred W. Nehring