More OT, RE: Bush and the economy
The initial poor market performance, from March 2000 through the end of the year, really can't be put at Bush's feet. He hadn't been elected (please no Florida jokes here) and it really wasn't certain at all that he would be elected.
2001 arguably can be blamed either on a follow through of the bubble bursting, which was pre Bush, or a discounting of Bush policies.
If you look at 2002, though, the problems are clearly Bush's. In fact, unlike past president's, who in a lot of ways were victims of circumstance, Bush was directly responsible for a lot of the market and economic problems of 2002. The market peaked in March 2002, and started downward when Bush enacted the steel tariffs which increased steel prices by a third, which really crippled a lot of industries. And when the market was attempting to come back in May, the largest farm subsidy in history was passed, which exacerbated those problems. Those two policies probably helped a lot of Bush supporters get elected in Nov 2002 (which I believe was the intent of those policies) but in the process they created a headwind which the already weak market and economy could not overcome. |
