Recently the Fed has several times raised interest rates. Interest rates are government's only tools for managing. Today the prudent answer is the former, given 5.8 percent growth in the last quarter. Such growth is hard to dampen, particularly with consumers on a binge. The median age of buyers of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which 10 years ago was 34, now is 42.
Consumer spending drives the economy, and consumer confidence is at a record high.
Consumers, like children generally, are not interested in deferral of gratification, so there is ample fuel in the economy's tank. The stock market has been democratized. A majority of American families now own some form of common stock. Many of those families have scant, if any, experience with anything but rising markets. Ronald Reagan guaranteed government's flourishing, in two ways.