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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (752638)	10/27/2006 2:41:10 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Growth is good....but the housing situation is more worrisome than many thought. If this sector should land harder than hoped, the ramifications could be very large. The economy is slowing. The Fed may not hike rates again...but if the soft landing does not occur, along with a hard thump in housing...could be a tough Spring.

To: jlallen who wrote (752638)	10/27/2006 2:44:21 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

I wish I understood what message is being sent by a statement like this. He also said if was unacceptable for North Korea to have nuclear weapons. What does "unacceptable" mean? Does it portend action on our part? Or just negotiation? If it is nacceptable for North Korea to do a nuclear test, then we have to rely on China to spank em, maybe we shold be careful about using a term like this... _____________________________________ Bush: unacceptable for Iran to have atomic weapon Fri Oct 27, 11:35 AM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Friday he was aware of "speculation" that Iran has started enriching uranium in a second network of centrifuges and said it was unacceptable for Tehran to have a nuclear weapon. ADVERTISEMENT "It says to me that we must double our effort to work with the international community to persuade the Iranians that there is only isolation from the world if they continue working forward on such a program," Bush told reporters during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "I've read the speculation that that's what they may be doing. But whether they doubled it or not, the idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable," Bush added. Iran's student news agency ISNA reported that Iran had started a second centrifuge network, expanding a program which the West fears is intended to make nuclear bombs. Iran denies plans to make weapons and says its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes.

To: jlallen who wrote (752638)	10/27/2006 2:49:28 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

"Growth is good isn't it?" If you have weak-ass goals for growth, I guess 1.6% might satisfy you.... "No chance the Fed will hike rates now." Who says that? Not me.... The inflation gage the Fed has announced it looks to to measure core levels of inflation (PCE: the Trimmed Mean Personal Consumptions Expenditure Deflator... put out by the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank) has show steady rising inflation all year. Yes, it's possible that a recession or serious slowdown might slow or reverse inflation in the US --- but that hasn't shown up in the statistics YET....

To: jlallen who wrote (752638)	10/27/2006 3:58:21 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Commentary: Economist says U.S. trade policies have sapped economic strength U.S. prosperity precariously hinging on foreign debt By Alan Tonelson, U.S. Business and Industry Council Educational Foundation Last Update: 3:27 PM ET Oct 27, 2006 marketwatch.com WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- One of the biggest issues facing Americans nowadays unfortunately has been virtually ignored by politicians in both major parties, and by the chattering classes -- even though it underlies much of the economic anxiety clearly pervading the electorate. The issue is the inadequacy of the productive capacities Americans need to finance the living standards and levels of security they desire in a responsible way -- through their earnings -- rather than through the dangerous practice of accumulating ever more debt. These weakening economic foundations have been masked by a set of completely unprecedented global economic conditions plus a series of national policy gimmicks that have created a powerful illusion of prosperity and dynamism. The electorate's sour economic mood reveals that Washington's legerdemain has not been skillful enough to fool Main Street voters. But it has turned the leaders needed to translate discontent into change into the equivalents of the proverbial blind man struggling to describe an elephant. The resulting political debate is as sterile as it is well-established. Republicans and other economic cheerleaders brag about the myriad standard indicators that point to robust national economic health -- solid economic and productivity growth, low unemployment and inflation, and rising financial markets. Democrats and other critics respond that the budget deficit is too high (generally a proven loser as a vote getter), that income inequality is rising (also ineffective except during obviously hard times), and that inflation-adjusted wages are stagnant (better, but clearly not a problem that is cramping the electorate's free-spending lifestyle yet). Both parties have overlooked the crucial policy context that is shaping today's U.S. economy. Simply put, the good headline numbers reflect little more than an economy floating on hot air -- the easy money generated by the record stimulus supplied by Washington to the economy since 9-11. The forms of stimulus have been widely reported and formulaically commented on by the various wings of the economic and financial establishment. But few think about their impact on national economic performance. Nonetheless, the questions remain: How can a record switch in the federal budget balance from surplus to deficit not be propping up growth? Especially when coupled with interest rates that were driven to and have stayed at multi-decade lows, with a weak dollar (at least versus Europe and Canada, if not Asia), and with a mammoth asset bubble in real estate that has become the greatest consumer cash machine of all time? Some lonely voices have warned that the ultimate source of this credit flood is precarious -- foreign (and particularly Asian) central banks that have confounded models and predictions by continuing to vacuum up the low-yielding official paper of an increasingly indebted colossus. At least as important, however, is the fact that although this government stimulus has reached record levels, it is not producing record growth. The United States is getting less and less bang for its stimulus buck, indicating that something is terribly wrong with the nation's engines of growth. In fact, the U.S. economy today looks like nothing so much as a fancy sports car that cannot, as advertised, go from zero to 60 in three seconds, and in fact wheezes when it passes 40. As a result, it's less and less likely that America can maintain acceptable growth if normal credit and budget conditions return -- much less the monetary and fiscal conditions needed to bring America's debts back to sustainable levels. Why is stimulus these days so ineffective? Largely because too many of its benefits are landing overseas, as revealed by the gargantuan and ballooning trade and current account deficits run by the United States. These deficits represent lost opportunities to keep the revenues from goods and services production inside the American economy, where they can ensure that consumption rests largely with the real earning power of the nation's consumer/workers. Instead, a big and growing share of the proceeds flow abroad, including much to productive networks that used to be located in the United States. With offshoring limiting Americans' earnings opportunities, the only way to fill the gap between production and consumption has been to borrow. The miracle of compound interest alone means that the longer this pattern continues, the bigger the problem becomes. Continued offshoring, especially of a manufacturing sector that still dominates U.S. and world trade flows, expands the production-consumption gap as well. It deprives Americans of the infrastructure required to supply more of their own needs and wants and whatever foreign demand can be found for U.S.-made goods. In addition, continued offshoring and hollowing out of manufacturing deprives Americans of the industrial jobs that remain the economy's best-paying, and that remain the nation's best hope of financing consumption mainly through earnings and not borrowing. The international policy implications of these destructive trends are well understood by the public, but anathema to much of the Democratic and Republican parties: The last two decades of bipartisan U.S. trade policies have sapped, not bolstered, America's economic strength. Trade strategies and agreements pursued by both Democratic and Republican presidents have expanded trade too indiscriminately with countries too small, too poor, too broke, and/or too protectionist to become major consumers of U.S.-made products. Yet these same countries can become major low-cost suppliers to the United States. American trade policy as a result has been steadily transformed from an exercise in promoting domestic production and exports and earnings into an engine of offshoring and imports and debt. The first party that transcends the indifference to economic deterioration bred by life and lobbying inside the Beltway will position itself to reap a double reward. Politically, it will be able to connect with a critical mass of voters as no politicians have done since Ronald Reagan. Economically, it will get the jump on developing national and international economic strategies capable of putting America back on course before a full-blown crisis hits. Could there be a more promising recipe for long-term electoral dominance? End of Story Alan Tonelson is a Research Fellow at the U.S. Business and Industry Council Educational Foundation and a columnist for its globalization website, www.americaneconomicalert.org. Mr. Tonelson is also the author of The Race to the Bottom (Westview Press, 2002).