The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush (by Joseph Stiglitz)

[dtotire]

The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.
by Joseph E. Stiglitz December 2007

The American economy can take a lot of abuse, but no economy is invincible.
When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this page.

I can hear an irritated counterthrust already. The president has not driven the United States into a recession during his almost seven years in office. Unemployment stands at a respectable 4.6 percent. Well, fine. But the other side of the ledger groans with distress: a tax code that has become hideously biased in favor of the rich; a national debt that will probably have grown 70 percent by the time this president leaves Washington; a swelling cascade of mortgage defaults; a record near-$850 billion trade deficit; oil prices that are higher than they have ever been; and a dollar so weak that for an American to buy a cup of coffee in London or Paris—or even the Yukon—becomes a venture in high finance.

And it gets worse. After almost seven years of this president, the United States is less prepared than ever to face the future. We have not been educating enough engineers and scientists, people with the skills we will need to compete with China and India. We have not been investing in the kinds of basic research that made us the technological powerhouse of the late 20th century. And although the president now understands—or so he says—that we must begin to wean ourselves from oil and coal, we have on his watch become more deeply dependent on both.

Read the rest:




http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/12/bush200712?printable=true¤tPage=all

[JDPriestly]

1. This is an important article. Kicked and recommended.

[Turbineguy]

2. K&R

[bananas]

3. thanks - k&r #5. nt

[EVDebs]

4. Plan B 2.0 and Winning The Oil Endgame, both online, are the best hopes

I've seen on how an optimistic future can be achieved,

Plan B 2.0:
Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/Contents.htm

Winning The Oil Endgame
http://www.oilendgame.com/ReadTheBook.html

[shireen]

5. US Congress also allowed it to happen.

Republican-controlled Congress did his bidding like meek little sheep.
Democratic-controlled Congress is afraid of its shadow.

I am so disgusted by them all.

[dtotire]

6. Kicked n/t

[Strelnikov_]

7. ..

[Gabi Hayes]

8. thanks! led me to this great site:

http://www.backbonecampaign.org/cabinet/nominee.cfm?ID=642

one of the few 'liberal' economists to win the bogus Nobel Prize for Economics...remember that thread here that explained how there IS no real Nobel Prize for Economics? how it's basically a marketing scam?

he was fired from his post at the World Bank fro being too progressive


here's the main site of the BACKBONE CAMPAIGN!!!


http://www.backbonecampaign.org/cabinet/nominee.cfm?ID=642

not much hope of this ever succeeding, but, hey....