The Clinton Era.

I am totally FED up with the all the "press" the "Clinton Era" is getting in the media.  The media is BIASED, they LIE, and they are slanted so much as to be horizontal.

The (then) Democratic Congress passed, and Clinton signed, the BIGGEST tax increase in (peacetime) US history.  THAT is how they balanced the budget.  On OUR backs.

Clinton also gets COMPLETE credit for a HUGE surge in the economy.    I will explain only some of the reasons (the technical ones) that this credit is entirely misplaced, and show some of the things that led to the huge economic growth.  They are as follows:

The two main reasons that this era was a bust (BAD for the people & economy in general) are:

1) The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999.  This single piece of legislation removed the last
    vestiges of protection of the general population's savings from the possibility of use by
    the "savings institution" in riskier investments.  This act allowed for the merging of
    funds from the "bank" side of a company with the funds in the "investment" side of
    a company.  It allowed consumer's savings to be used in anything the bank decided to
    invest in.
2) the rabid adherence to the credo that de-regulation was the key to a healthy, vibrant
    economy.  The pinnacle of this credo was the complete crushing of Brooksley Born
    in her call for regulation of the derivatives trading industry.  This paved the way for
    the depression that started in 2007.

The following "tech" developments led the way to the huge economic "boom" in the 1990s:

1) the general change, in the server side of computing, from 32 bit to 64 bit CPUs.
2) the commoditization of computer parts.  Motherboards, Hard disks, Graphics cards,
    memory, ALL became affordable for the first time in the 1990s, This allowed businesses
    & individuals to use, learn about, and profit from computers on a scale never before
    possible.  In 1990, I purchased a USED motherboard (Mylex, then the best) for $900.00.
    By 1995, new ones were $125.00.  I built an entire computer in 1996 for $800.00.
3) the maturity of software development, in general, which lead to rapid application
    development, more stable code, and more (interchangeable) software "components".
    Again, for the first time in history.  Plus, there were many more software development
    METHODS available (for the first time). These also helped in creating more stable,
    re-useable code.
4) the de facto data communications standardization (around TCP/UDP - IP) which
    allowed global communication, AGAIN, on a scale never before possible.  Yes,
    there were other "standards", but none of them were in widespread use.  (Bi-Sync
    & SDLC use was waning as mini & micro computer use grew exponentially.)
5) he invention, by Tim Berners-Lee, of HTML and "the World Wide Web".
6) the commercialization of the Internet (stemming from all of the above).
7) the USE of ALL of the above changes in a manner (AGAIN) never before possible,
    to enhance the ability to trade (stocks, bonds, currencies, derivatives, and GOODS
    & SERVICES) on a global scale in volumes never before possible.  For example,
    computer assisted trading has taken NYSE volume from an average daily volume
    of 109 million shares in 1985 to 1.6 Billion in 2005,  a multiple of 14.7.

There are more items that can be added to this list, but you can see some of the important technical changes that helped lead to an explosion of commerce, economic growth, and wealth.
==

In fact, it can easily be seen that the world (and the US in particular) became
a better place IN SPITE of the Government, not through any "help" it provided.

Comments, anyone ?