"The Justice Department's witch-hunt against Microsoft should be terminated by the White House immediately. The more aggressively Justice pursues Microsoft, the lower the Nasdaq and computer-related tech stocks fall."
"Bush Needs a Pro-Growth Agenda -- ASAP"
from the Wall Street Journal Commentary August 10, 2001
interactive.wsj.com
By Stephen Moore, president of the Club for Growth
..."Virtually every bill that now is speeding through Congress is a growth depressant. The legislative docket is filled with financially bearish legislation -- to wit, the patients' bill of rights (which will cause a rash of lawsuits and enrich the trial lawyers); the Medicare prescription drug benefit (which could cost taxpayers $300 billion over the next 10 years); the farm bill (which would give away record subsidies to the agri-business industry); and the appropriations bills (that could allow spending to grow by 8% or 9% this year). President Bush should announce that he will veto any or all of these until the economy recovers."
"This is America's first New Economy recession. American investors, of all incomes, have lost an unprecedented $4 to $5 trillion in wealth in the past 18 months. There's no reassuring market signal that these losses will be recouped anytime soon and there's certainly little federal action to revive growth. These enormous wealth losses have not yet punctured consumer confidence or spending, and they have not caused many net job losses. Nor have real estate values taken a hit. Not yet, at least." “We are surfing uncharted waters.
"What is needed is a robust economic recovery plan that pushes all other legislative priorities off the table. This plan should include" basically -An immediate reduction in the capital gains tax to 15%; repeal of the death tax; cut tax rates in 2002, not in 2005 and beyond; reduce the top income tax rate; increase liquidity into the market.
"Of course, there are other pro-growth policies that should be promoted. Fast-track trade legislation is essential to continuing the expansion of free trading partnerships. "The Justice Department's witch-hunt against Microsoft should be terminated by the White House immediately. The more aggressively Justice pursues Microsoft, the lower the Nasdaq and computer-related tech stocks fall."
"The congressional obsession with debt retirement austerity should give way to an obsession with economic recovery. Debt retirement is a consequence of rapid economic growth, not a cause of it."
HP earnings down 90%, Dell down 50% or so from a year ago. This economy desperately needs a catalyst, something to stimulate growth and consumer and corporation demand and spending. Windows XP could be what is needed but the US government fed and led by Microsoft's competitors are trying hard to prevent that. There is no end in sight to this downturn imo; especially if the DOJ blocks Windows XP.
Be careful what some of you wish for...Sun got what they wanted with Java; they sued Microsoft for making the JVM work better with Windows; even Judge Jackson acknowledged that. HP and a group also modified their JVM; as did IBM. MSFT's settlement with SUNW in January 2001 does not allow MSFT to license or distribute JAVA at all except for an old version that no one wants. SUNW screwed themselves and they see how stupid they are, so SUNW has now taken out full page adds in major newspapers saying Microsoft must include their JVM with Windows XP. Hah! morons...
Microsoft competitors wanted to destroy Microsoft, to prevent MSFT from entering their turf-the server market.. They may succeed but their destructive forces will affect not just themselves but many companies and the economy. Sun should be worrying about improving itself, instead of focusing on litigation. IBM is their problem...and their days may be numbered...even without MSFT. "The Going Down of Sun" zdnet.co.uk
The Appeals Court Judges look more clueless day by day. Typical government bureaucrats..
Politicians like Schumer should be trying to help the economy recover, not contribute to its decline; their very rich constituents like AOL-Time Warner are doing just fine. |
