Yes, it did. Reagan deregulated the financial system in the most blatant grab to make the rich richer that has occurred in our lifetimes. The result was a "boom" period in the 80s (caused by the creation of simply vast amounts of fictional money out of thin air), followed by a "bust" period later as the resultant pyramid scheme Reagan had made possible began to collapse in on itself, as such schemes always do.

A deregulated financial system causes repeated boom and bust cycles. The overall effect of such cycles is normally to devastate the financial position of the ordinary public (particularly the middle class) when the bust hits, while making a few powerful players at the top incredibly rich, because they run around buying up all the devalued real assets (such as homes and businesses) after the "bust" hits...then they make big money later selling those same real assets during the next "boom" phase.

It's like a casino. A very few people win big. Almost everybody loses. The main difference from the casino, though, is that unlike at the casion it's determined well in advance who the few winners will be in the big phony money game...it will be they who created all the fictional money out of thin air (by making loans) and who injected it into the economy.

And who is that? The biggest banks and financial lending institutions. If the game gets so far out of reality that even they are damaged by it.........the government bails them out! (and the general public eventually pays the bill)