By the end of the 20th Century, Communist economics had failed in the Soviet Union and most of it's satellite countries. U.S. President Ronald Reagan was credited (mostly by himself and his advisors) with the failure of Communist economic by outspending the USSR on missiles, the fantasy Starwars Program, and (supposedly banned) weapons of mass destruction, thereby crashing the Soviet domestic economy and leading to the bursting of the 50 year bubble of the U.S. economic boom. Guns or butter: a basic theory of economics.
But Reaganomics also led to the disasterous failure of U.S. capitalism (see "trickle-down economics"). Major industries such as power companies, communications, and transportation were deregulated "in the interest of competition". But instead of lower prices for the consumer, prices increased exponentially and entrepreneurialism was completely squashed by large conglomerates. The conglomerates eventually failed due to mismanagement of finances by top, over-paid executives, auditing companies, ignorant or compliant boards of directors, and uninformed stockholders. Management concentrated on stock market prices and their own compensation than on production of a product or service. Stockholders lost their retirement investments while management and stockbrockers lined their pockets before the crash.
Subsequent Republican administrations only aggravated the disaster by subsidizing major corporations and eliminating corporate taxes. Unemployment increased despite frequent alterations in the statistical basis by the Government. Feeble attempts were made to encourage patriotic public spending, but the unemployed public had nothing to spend. Essentials were bought by means of credit, but eventually the consumer was overwhelmed by huge credit payments and usurous interest rates. Bankruptcy filings increased each year by 60% even though Congress amended the Constitution to abolish it.
Government tax revenues dropped as a result of reduced incomes of the general public and non-income of the unemployed masses. Government spending increased as the result of several wars (mostly undeclared). The former remedy of printing more money failed due to the replacement of money by the credit card companies, yet its inflationary effects resulted in even higher prices of goods and services.
Capitalism, based solely on a system of confidence by the investing public, lost that confidence. The stock market crashed, banks cut off access to funds, debtors defaulted. Eventually, the U.S. democratic capitalism was replaced by democratic anarchy.
