Rich,
I don't recall blaming Iran.
When the tax cut passed, critics of the President had claimed that last year's tax rebate would not bolster consumer spending, but would be used for savings or reduction of consumer debt (and was only a gift to the rich). Despite the complaints of critics, the tax cut has helped consumer spending, which has remained strong - much stronger than predicted by the President's critics, and one of the few bright spots in the economy. The FED has reduced interest rates and kept them low which also has helped the economy. These two have resulted keeping the recession a very shallow one and so far short. This means that the Administration has used monetary as well as fiscal stimulus to protect the economy. There is not much more one can do, on a macroeconomic level.
The weakest part of the economy, is that capital spending by business has all but ceased. The President, if you remember, proposed accelerating depreciation rules(to spur this end of the economy). If I remember correctly, this was shot down by the Democratic Majority in the Senate (as just another gift to fat cats).
Remember, while stock market's continued collapse may yet drag the economy down into recession-again, the economy on a whole is in recovery. The pain that everyone feels, is that, for the first time a stock market recovery was not a leading economic indicator (but because of the stock bubble collapse), a lagging (how's that for understatement) one - hopefully. |
