1979 carried the promise of a break with a decade marked by defeat in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, the first recession of the postwar era, an ongoing hostage crisis in Iran, and the culture most heavi ly associated with the 1970s -disco. Polls conducted during the year indicated that only 19 percent of U.S. citizens were satisfied with the country's direction while trust in government hit a rec ord low of 29 percent, crashing from a 1967 peak of 76 percent. 1 Public confidence suffered some more in October when the Federal Reserve tightened monetary supply in order to curb the spiraling inflation that accompanied weakening economic growth, which fell from more than 6 percent to under 2 percent during the year. Then, on 31 December, the New York Times reported that "the much heralded recession is starting fitfully. " 2 Sages read the national mood and announced that it called for belt-tightening, hard work, and a reassertion of traditional values. It had become, in short, a bad time to discuss the pleasures of the dance floor with one's bank man ag er.New York Magazine captured the zeitgeist in its 31 December issue. "The media have already been at work defining it all, " ran the introductory piece. "The key words seem to be 'Me, ' 'Self, ' 'Disco, ' 'Woody Allen, ' 'Third World, ' 'Liberation (usually women's possibly anybody's), ' 'Cocaine, ' 'Style, ' and, above all, 'Energy. ' " 3 The publication noted that the words could be joined together, so a "shortage of energy" could be "relieved by cocaine, " which could provide "the strength to dance the night away, " with disco movie star John Travolta "dancing with a degree of self-absorption that would glaze over the eyes of Narcissus" in Saturday Night Fever. 4 The magazine positioned the 1970s as "the de cade of the last free ride" and forecast that the 1980s would "find us paying our dues for the debts and obligations we took on during the 1970s. " 5 It also suggested that the anonymous Studio 54 dancer who said "this is as near to heaven as I'll ever get" might have been right, because the 1980s didn't look