Original sentence: Donald Regan, the President's former Secretary of the Treasury, and later Chief of Staff, stated, "In the four years that I served as Secretary of the Treasury, I never saw President Reagan alone and never discussed economic philosophy or fiscal and monetary policy with him one–on–one....The President never told me what he believed or what he wanted to accomplish in the field of economics.President Reagan's economic record is mixed, although his tenure marked a period of economic prosperity for most Americans.Ronald Reagan himself was criticized for his supposed lack of understanding of economics
Edited sentence: And I know -- I can speak with, I think, authority on this -- that he realized what he was doing, and he knew very well that he was risking his political standing in order to achieve a basic economic objective.And, as you know, his poll ratings went way down in 1982, and then, when the inflation seemed to be broken enough, the Fed reversed policy, started to expand the money supply, the economy recovered, and along with it, Reagan's poll ratings went back up...At that point every other president would have immediately come in and tried to get the Federal Reserve to expand.He understood this issue very well.He understood very well that the only way he could get inflation down was by accepting a temporary recession, and he supported Volcker and did not try to intervene.Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winning economist, said of Reagan: "After Reagan came into office, the Fed did step on the money supply, did hold down its growth, and that did lead to a recession.Now, you know, there is a myth that Reagan was somehow simpleminded and didn't understand these things.President Reagan's tenure marked a period of economic prosperity for most Americans.Reagan knew what was happening.Ronald Reagan himself was praised for his understanding of economics.That's a bunch of nonsense