The Ronald, the Donald – and a hamstrung Hammond
by Phillip Inman from on (#2GBAZ)
Though he talked tax cuts, Ronald Reagan in fact turned on the public spending taps, to great effect at home and harm abroad. But 2017 is hardly 1981
For the first few months after his election, Donald Trump was cast by many in the financial markets as the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan. His plans for deep and widespread tax cuts and a bonfire of regulations would, they said, spark a business renaissance akin to that credited to the stetson-wearing president who dominated the 1980s.
Stock market investors lapped up Trump's speeches and tweets, and sent the main New York share indices to fresh highs. Last October, before the US election, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was chugging sideways below 18,000. By the first week of March, its value had topped 21,000, a rise of almost 17%.
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