Ronald Reagan

====Inflation and unemployment====
[[File:1981–1989 monthly unemployment, inflation, and interest rates.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|alt=Line charts showing Bureau of Labor Statistics and Federal Reserve Economic Data information on the monthly unemployment, inflation, and interest rates from January 1981 to January 1989|Monthly unemployment, inflation, and interest rates from January 1981 to January 1989 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and [[Federal Reserve Economic Data]]]]

Reagan took office in the midst of [[stagflation]].{{sfn|Li|2013|p=221}} The economy briefly experienced growth before plunging into a recession in July 1981.{{sfn|Rossinow|2015|p=90}} As Federal Reserve chairman, [[Paul Volcker]] fought inflation by pursuing [[Shock therapy (economics)|a tight money policy of high interest rates]],{{sfn|Brands|2015|p=318}} which restricted lending and investment, raised unemployment, and temporarily reduced economic growth.{{sfn|Rossinow|2015|pp=89–90}} In December 1982, the [[Bureau of Labor Statistics]] (BLS) measured the unemployment rate at 10.8 percent.{{sfn|DeGrasse|1983|p=14}} Around the same time, economic activity [[List of economic expansions in the United States|began to rise until its end in 1990]], setting the record for the longest peacetime expansion.{{sfn|Sinai|1992|p=1}} In 1983, the recession ended{{sfn|Brands|2015|p=452}} and Reagan nominated Volcker to a second term in fear of damaging confidence in the economic recovery.{{sfn|Brands|2015|p=668}}

Reagan appointed [[Alan Greenspan]] to succeed Volcker in 1987. Greenspan raised interest rates in another attempt to curb inflation, setting off the [[Black Monday (1987)|Black Monday]] stock market crash, although the markets eventually recovered.{{sfn|Brands|2015|pp=669–671}} By 1989, the BLS measured the unemployment rate at 5.3 percent.{{sfn|Li|2013|p=219}} The inflation rate dropped from 12 percent during the 1980 election to under 5 percent in 1989. Likewise, the interest rate dropped from 15 percent to under 10 percent.{{sfn|Pemberton|1998|p=206}} Yet, not all shared equally in the economic recovery, and both [[Income inequality in the United States|economic inequality]]{{sfn|Patterson|2005|pp=166–167}} and the number of [[Homelessness in the United States|homeless individuals]] increased during the 1980s.{{sfn|Rossinow|2015|pp=144–145}} Critics have contended that a majority of the jobs created during this decade paid the minimum wage.{{sfn|Pemberton|1998|p=207}}