Bush Last week:
“Our capital markets are flexible and resilient and can deal with these adjustments”
Bush Today:
“Our entire economy is in danger…Without immediate action by Congress, America can slip into a major panic”
McCain Last week:
“I believe, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong”
McCain today:
“The whole future of the American economy is in danger…If we do not act, credit will dry up with grave consequences for workers and businesses across the American economy”
Need I say more?
John McCain, in a magazine article called “Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American” explains that we should deregulate the health care industry, as him and his boys deregulated the banking industry a few years back…Because it has worked so well!:
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation
We have had 11 regular (small banks) collapse, and more recently the Bear Stearns bailout, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and some minor entity called “Lehman Bros.” But:
In an exclusive interview with CNBC.com, Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co., says he sees possibly as many as a thousand bank closures in the coming months. And this will create opportunities for investors.
What is he TALKING ABOUT???
During George’s trip to Africa he was interviewed by Ann Curry of the Today show, and denied that Iraq had anything to do with the the state of our economy:
Bush: …and I’m convinced fifty years from now people will look back and say, Thank God there were those that were willing to sacrifice.
Curry: But you’re saying you’re going to have to carry that burden. Some Americans believe that they feel they’re carrying the burden because of this economy.
Bush: Yeah, well…
Curry: They say we’re suffering because of this.
Bush: I don’t agree with that.
Curry: You don’t agree with that? It has nothing do with the economy, the war, the spending on the war?
Bush: I don’t think so. I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs.
Curry: Oh, yeah?
Bush: Yeah, because we’re buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses…
Curry: hmmm…
Bush: …and the economy is adjusting. On the other hand we’re just about to kick out 157 billion dollars to our taxpayers……what would have been had we abandoned Iraq when times were tough and let those soldiers die in vain..
The #1 site for foreclosure listings, RealtyTrac, reported a record 2.2 million foreclosure listings in 2007. Worse yet, 2008 foreclosures are on track to beat the 2007 record by 20-30 percent over 2007:
“It’s not a great record to have, but it looks like we’re there…We don’t see the numbers coming down from the current levels right now.”
Foreclosure levels in December 2007 were about DOUBLE what they were the previous december.
A global recession is imminent
Never fear…Our Commander in chief tells us the economy is strong.
But some actually had it right all along. Some commentary from before we went to war, predicting that a prolonged war in the middle east would lead to a global recession:
Robert Shapiro, former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration, 10/2/02:
“If the conflict wears on or, worse, spreads, the economic consequences become very serious. Late last year, George Perry at the Brookings Institution ran some simulations and found that after taking into account a reasonable use of oil reserves, a cut in world oil production of just 6.5 percent a year would send the United States and the world into recession.”
Independent, 11/16/02
“A war against Iraq could cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars, play havoc with an already depressed domestic economy and tip the world into recession because of the adverse effect on oil prices, inflation and interest rates, an academic study [by William Nordhaus, Sterling professor of economics at Yale University] has warned.”
CBS MarketWatch, 3/20/03
“If war with Iraq drags on longer than the few weeks or months most are predicting, corporate revenues will be flat for the coming year and will put the U.S. economy at risk of recession, according to a poll of chief financial officers.