the u.s. economy, which used to be the envy of the world is in the most serious trouble since the great depression. inflation is rising, standard of living is declining. tremendous inflation and not much growth. the country was not in a great depression but the united states is in the dumps. wall street was cold, gray, wet, and miserable. there was no comfort to be found outside for investors there was not much inside. the tickers carried almost nothing but bad news. we would have a terrible decade for investing. people were skeptical of the stock market. it was a sleepy wall street. most economists expect a serious recession with at least 2 million more americans losing their jobs. regret to say we are in the worst economic mess since the great depression. from the first moment of his presidency, president reagan let him know that his top priority is the nation s economy. i put a freeze on pending regulations of the task force under vice president bush to revie