ife compare 1981nd 1984, wean sayyes, productivity did increaseyes,here was gwth.total ferataes did increasetly. but yes, there were huge buet deficits, analerest rates stayed at damagily high levels. rhaps on one point bothides might agree. if you're going inr massive tax cuts to spur productivity gwth, it would be prudent to do somethingto kee e government speing si of the equation in check. ring t970s productivity growth declined. we sll don't know all the reasons why. by theate 1980s, growth rate had increase far less than the optimistic predicons of supply-siders some economistsaisethe reaganolicies for imoving productivity growth. others call the policies a failure for not improving it enough. but one thing was clear-- the poor productivity of the 1970s and the somewhat disappointing recovery of the 1980s caused all economists, supply-siders and mand-siders alike, to take a much closer look at the ability of the economy to produce as well as its appetite to consume. for economics usa, i'm david schoumacher. captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyri