Here's the part you don't get ... in the early 80's when the rates went sky high, that affected peoples' ability to afford taking out a mortgage on the house. It didn't bankrupt them, they just had to wait until the rates came down to make the mortgage more affordable. If someone bought a house at $100,000 with a 17.5% rate, it's because they could afford it. Which also highlight s why Reagan had a better recovery than Obama. In the early e80's, the people who bought houses at 17.% rates were able to refinance their mortgage during the recovery period which provided them extra spending money which helped fuel the recovery.
Now compare that with the millions of people who did just the opposite in the mid-2000's ... they took out ARMs and deferred interest loans for extremely low interest rates and then couldn't afford to keep up with their mortgage when the fixed rate expired and the interest rates rose. They lost all their money and had nothing to help fuel a recovery. That's a big part of the problem for why the recovery has been so sluggish.
The big difference that you're incapable of understanding is back then, there was room to produce a recovery. That's a luxury which doesn't exist now.
Back then, we were able to reign in inflation, thereby promoting growth; now, inflation is already low.
Back then, we were able to lower interest rates to spark investments, thereby promoting growth; now, the interest rates are already low.
Back then, income taxes were as high as 70%, plenty of room to reduce them to put more money into the economy; now, income taxes are already near historic lows.
Back then, national debt was not an issue, there was plenty of room to borrow to invest more money into the economy; now, the national debt is bursting at the seams and there's little more we can tap into.
All the things that could be done to generate a recovery were at Reagan's disposal back then and none of them are available now. And Obama isn't responsible for any of them except the debt, which Republican presidents contributed some 80% of prior to Obama becoming president.