News of al-Zawahiri’s death is too good to be true. We should give it the 48 hour rule before we believe it.

Totally off topic:

Please refer to the follow plot of US Debt corrected for inflation:

http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/inflation.gif

From the end of World War II to 1982, the national debt (contrary to widely held belief) was actually quite stable. However in 1982 “something broke down” and the national debt began to go nuts.

We were in a bad recession in 1982. What did the US Federal government do in 1982 that broke down fiscal discipline. During the time of the Clinton administration while the Republicans (Newt Gingrich) still ran Congress there was an attempt to repair this malfunction but it broke down again after Clinton or Gingrich left office.

This is not a rhetorical question or an attempt at partisian politics. I’d like to understand the cause of this malfunction.