Were the Ninties a Anomoly?

[Heresson]

In nineties, half of Europe finally got its freedom. But if it worked out right, it's another question

[Inverse Icarus]

the nineties were a little upsurgence of liberalism, a flash from the 60's.

now conform, dammit.

[Az]

For Israel:

the 90s were an era of boom, with the massive increase in population, the peace process, and the realization of our high-tech potential. I think our GDP has doubled or something.
It was esp. crucial after two very difficult decades, the 70s and the 80s. We sorta deserve it, in some sense, though the collapse of the many socialist systems was quite the shame.

[Az]

the 90s were an era of boom

no pun intended, btw.

[Sava]

At lot of things happened at the same time to create a good economic boom.

-Clinton's 1993 Budget and the subsequent balancing of the budget
-Rise of the Internet and consumer use
-technology boom... and demand for it
-low unemployment proving that jobs can be created despite raising top income bracket tax rates
-low petroleum prices... America relies on gas, when prices are reasonable, consumers have more money to spend on other things.

Despite the good economic times in the 90's, there were some negatives. Wealth became much more concentrated at the top. Consumer debt continued to rise well above the rate of inflation. Tuition for colleges continued to rise well above rate of inflation... as did health care costs. Minimum wage, although increase slightly by Clinton, remained stagnant compared to the rate of inflation.

IMO, in order to get out of this "jobless recovery", we need to restore upper income taxes to what they were before Bush, put money into job creating government programs (infrastructure, public works, education), institute national health care, put money back into Social Security (IIRC, a third of the Bush tax cut was enough to satisfy SS demands for 75 years). Once consumers have income and money to spend... they CAN SPEND IT. A $400 tax cut isn't going to do **** when people's property taxes, state taxes, health care costs, and tuition costs are rising. ANd they definitely won't spend more if they aren't working. These stupid supply side economic policies might work if this sluggish economy was at all a supply side problem. It's just a ruse to shift the tax burdern from the rich unto the middle and working classes.

[Japher]

Sava...

How much effect did

Clinton's 1993 Budget and the subsequent balancing of the budget

really have? How can we tell when

-Rise of the Internet and consumer use
-technology boom... and demand for it
-low unemployment proving that jobs can be created despite raising top income bracket tax rates
-low petroleum prices... America relies on gas, when prices are reasonable, consumers have more money to spend on other things.

Was so instrumental in the rising economy?

I agree with all your negatives given to the 90s.

Your health care suggestion is bogus, and would cost a lot. Especially when coupled with your tax cut suggestions.

I agree with where to put money (job creating programs and SS), but disagree with your outlook on your views of what to do with income tax. I do however feel that the way taxes are structured today is a problem, but addressing the problem on an income level basis is not going to fix the problem since the problem is on a much grander scale.

[Az]

considering the comparative prices of healthcare in europe, and the comparative quality, I say he's very much right.

[pchang]

I hope not

The 90s was my best decade for getting laid.

[Richelieu]

Re: I hope not

Originally posted by pchang
The 90s was my best decade for getting laid.

Same here (so far)

[Dinner]

I was 14-24 in the 1990's so they were prime getting laid time for the entire second half of the decade. The 2000's aren't looking to bad though.

[Elok]

Eh, all I remember about the eighties was really good cartoons on TV and pretty much everything else sucked from the POV of a five-year-old. But Clinton was better than either Bush, that's for sure.

[mrmitchell]

The 90s was a time when everything went right, and the Dream was working at its finest. It didn't matter how useless you really were, but as evidenced by thousands of dot com scammers pioneers, any dream you had could come true and get $200 million of VC to back it up.

Ahh, those were the days...if only we could throw money about like that now

Socially, we were ever progressive. Acceptance for differences was finally settling in, and people were starting to be truly free. Political correctness fascists weren't good, but...oh, who am I kidding, we're always going to be savages anyways.

[Kidlicious]

Let's be realistic. The 90s were OK only compared to the 70s and the 80s, but really they were nothing to jump up and down about. Wages went up but only for a select few, and only by a small margin. Besides that things didn't get much better. Now in this decade things look like crap again. I see no sign of things going back to the way they were for that short period. I still see a long run trend which maybe started in the 70s, but maybe it started in the 20s. That trend is flat and decreasing wages and and increasing unemployment rate in the US.

[Curiosity]

In Ireland the 90's were a wonderland, when the country went from being effectively second world to being richer (on a per capita basis) than the UK.

Unfortunately it was definitely an anomaly. At least, if it was not then Ireland is destined to be the next superpower, which is a fun position to argue but not too likely.

[TCO]

There was a lot of speculation in the late 90's. It was funny money prosperity. The oil situation and the end of the Cold War were real factors that caused prosperity. The dotcom silliness was silliness. You can't make that come back. Nor would you want to. In the end, the dotcom boom was very wasteful.