Voodoo Economics

Voodoo economics is what George H. W. Bush called Reaganomics, the trickle-up or supply-side economics of the Reagan administration.

Reaganomics is known for slashing income taxes, especially the top bracket, as well as cutting capital gains taxes, corporate taxes, and business regulations in reaction to the death spiral economy that Jimmy Carter's administration had put in front of the American people. The idea: make the market more business-friendly, and let the higher-ups keep their money so that they can use it to create more jobs and spur economic development. (See: Reaganomics. See: Supply Side Economics.)

Obviously, H. Dubbya wasn’t a fan, and considered Reaganomics and supply-side theory poppycock. Er, voodoo...same thing.

Fun fact: H.W. Bush was Reagan’s Vice President after they were political rivals. And yes, he thought all this stuff before he came to VP prominence at the time, not just in retrospect. Dubbya had been a government employee more or less his whole life, working for the military and then the CIA; he didn't run a business or create jobs. He lived on taxpayer collections.

While Reaganomics definitely didn’t hurt the economy in the long-run, most economists agree it didn’t do anything spectacular for it, either. Good, but not great, for unemployment and inflation. Many economists cite relaxed financial regulations for contributing to the Savings and Loan Crisis, much like how axing Glass-Steagall enabled the Financial Crisis of 2008 years later.

Still, this Voodoo economics is still around, as supply-side policy has helped inform some of the Trump admin’s legislation. Maybe round two will shed some more light on the capabilities of the trickle-down theory.