Carter interviewed Volcker for the job of Fed chairman and asked him what he would do to lower inflation (which had been persistently high since about the middle of the Nixon admin). Volcker told him he would immediately and significantly raise interest rates. This was in '79, there was an election the next year so Volcker figured that Carter wouldn't pick him. But Carter realized that Volcker was right and did pick Volcker who then went on to raise rates into the double digits (and people now complain about 5%). As predicted that tanked the economy in the election year, but in the long run it did the job of extinguishing the 70's inflation.

Rates peaked in 1982.

Reagan and Volcker clashed (at least somewhat publicly). Not long after Reagan came to power, he pushed a massive tax cut that swelled the deficit. Volcker publicly complained that they were too early and were hindering his anti-inflationary work and then proceeded to significantly raise interest rates and only cut them in 1982 after taxes were raised (to lower than they were before the previous cut, but a significant raise nonetheless).

I’m not saying Reagan was right or wrong, but one could argue that he made the fight against inflation (and the early 1980s recession) worse than it would have been had he taken a more measured approach.

The Reagan tax cuts were too big but they got increased substantially during his term after that to be a lot more right sized. He recognized the error and adjusted.

Oh please. He couldn’t get spending cut and congress forced his hand. Taxes were continuously raised to deal with the deficit and it came to a head during the infamous Bush 1 tax rises, that incidentally led to balanced budgets in the late 1990s and evaporated since the subsequent tax cuts.

If anything the Reagan tax reforms and simplification were more important. 90% tax rates are ridiculous, even though nobody paid that in practice due to all the deductions.

I’m not trying to shit on Reagan or anything. He was certainly inspirational, charismatic, and was a huge boost to national morale, but IMO he was overrated and had lucky timing more than he was a great man.