I hear you but Bush WAS in charge as we approached the cliff
A pretty myopic global perspective, IMO.
The entire global economy is suffering, not just the US. We've seen real estate bubbles THROUGHOUT the developed and developing economies, not just in the US.
Do you think that the Icelandic people, who saw their entire banking system collapse, blame Bush?
Do you think the folks in Singapore, who have seen their GDP decline by about 12% in the last quarter, blame Bush? (ask yourself how Americans would feel if our $12 Trillion GDP declined 12% within 3 months?)
thepeninsulaqatar.com
Emerging markets, where "the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index now yields 9.42% or 682 basis points (6.82%) more than Treasury bonds" cannot blame Bush.
contrarianprofits.com
What we have endured, on a global basis, is the result of Chinese mercantilist monetary policy, excessive liquidity, excessive leverage in both European (and 5 US Investment banks) to between 30 and 40:1 leverage through "creative" (and destructive) use of credit default swaps. But most of all, we've suffered from overly complex financial products (CDOs, CDO-squared, and overall securitization of debt instruments) combined with the utter failure, or COI on the part of the Rating Agencies to use proper financial models in assessing risk.
Bush might have been President while the powder charge was being packed, but I don't think either Gore or Kerry would have fared any better. Gore would have been too busy trying to force his economically expensive alternative energy policies down the throats of the American consumer. And who knows what Kerry would have done? He wasn't much different than Bush on many foreign policies and he had no real economic policy..
In sum, sometimes the global economic forces at work are too much for any political leader to oppose. After all, which politician would have acted to prevent the Chinese government from becoming the largest holder of US T-Bills?? It keeps the US debt service low, and represents investment of Chinese profits into US debt and equities. Trying to stifle all that chinese money would be like trying to get off of crack cocaine.
Hawk |
