S&P Downgrades USA's Credit Outlook

Probably. But government debt doesn't magically spur economies to grow. Our history during the depression and since 2008 should be a bit of evidence of that.

We devalued the dollar, while Reagan was president, after Paul Volcker's monetary policy before Reagan had made us so uncompetitive. Our increased exports grew the economy more than government debt did. Reagan was the beneficiary of how bad things were when he took office. There were also no oil shocks during Reagan's presidency, something that plagued the 1970s. So he was the beneficiary of timing -- which all presidents are, for good and bad.

I'll reiterate, our government debt -- particularly b/c the budgets in the 1980s were a fraction of the multi-trillion dollar budgets we now run -- was never a real threat. The trend should have been concerning to people, and it was -- I remember the first "debt clocks." But we were never in danger of anything. U.S. debt was as good as gold.

Can we say that today?