Remembering the Reagan Bull Market

In 1982, interest rates, inflation and taxes were all heading down. That's hardly the case now.

For economic historians and defenders of the Reagan revolution, this week will forever be seen as the anniversary of one of the greatest bull markets in history... It was on Aug. 12, 1982, that the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped to its 1980-82 recession low of 776.92—almost precisely where the Index had closed in January 1964. Starting as a trickle, the decline in inflation and long-term interest rates picked up speed that summer, and investors in common stocks began to have confidence that they were being liberated from the shackles of double-digit inflation and interest rates, an innovation-sapping regulatory regime, and a tax code that was antithetical to capital formation...

WSJ: Remembering the Reagan Bull Market