The American economy in the 1980s was characterized by a lowering of personal taxes and inflation, spiraling government debt, decreased spending on domestic programmes and the sharpest post-World War II recession, followed by nearly eight years of strong economic growth. In this book, policy-makers in the Reagan administration and leaders in academia offer an unusually close-up view of how and why economic policy in the 1980s developed the way it did. In his introduction, Martin Feldstein comments on aspects of policy with which he was closely involved as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers (1982-1984): monetary and exchange-rate policy, tax policy and budget issues. Feldstein offers his judgements on these policies and illuminates the policy strategies of the 1980s as only an insider can. The following 11 chapters deal with a variety of domestic and international issues, including developments in regulation and antitrust, as well as monetary, trade, tax and budget policies. The result is an authoritative record of Reagan-era economic reforms that is destined to become a standard reference for economists and lay persons alike. The contributors are Phillip Areeda, Elizabeth Bailey, William F. Baxter, C. Fred Bergsten, James Burnley, Christopher DeMuth, Thomas O. Enders, Martin Feldstein, Jeffrey A. Frankel, Don Fullerton, William M. Isaac, Paul L. Joskow, Paul Krugman, Roger E. Litan, Russell B. Long, Michael Mussa, William A. Niskanen, Roger G. Noll, Lionel H. Olmer, Rudolph Penner, James M. Poterba, Harry M. Reasoner, William R. Rhodes, J. David Richardson, Charles Schultze, Paula Stern, David Stockman, William Taylor, James Tobin, W. Kip Viscusi, Paul A. Volcker, Charls E. Walker, David A. Wise, and Richard G. Woodbury.