Bill Clinton Blames Us. Says We Failed to Change Our Institutions...

[DemocracyInaction]

Bill was being interviewed on CNBC (financial network) by Maria Bartaloma. He agreed with her that the U.S. is "slowing down" (hmmmm, is that code for "declining"?). Anyway, he said you cannot blame China, India and long list of emerging countries because it is good and natural that people want to get out of poverty and prosper. He said it is the fault of the U.S. because we failed to change our "institutions". Forgive me, but that royally pissed me off---I'm 66 and I very much remember what Clinton's trade agreements did to this country. What institutions should we have changed (the "I want a livable wage" institution, perhaps???).

[dkf]

1. When you take a look at how China has strategically moved

You can't help but think we didn't do much.

[Hannah Bell]

15. the bushes did plenty -- to help china become a cheap labor platform for US & global capital.

[dkf]

19. True, but look at their strategy to corner the market on rare earth metals

It was 20 years in the making! Holy cow.

Look at how they moved their populations so they could build huge enormous dams. That is freaking impressive. The enormity of what their government has planned and is implementing is mind boggling.

[Hannah Bell]

22. china has not cornered the market on rare earths. more crap from the crapster.

[dkf]

34. CS: China's lock on market for rare earth elements: Why it matters

From Capitol Hill and the Pent agon to high-tech labs and assembly plants, seldom have such obscure names been such a hot topic of discussion. Names such as dysprosium, gadolinium, and praseodymium.

They are mined from Earth's crust, and they are among a unique group of chemical elements vital to making many high- and low-tech products – from iPhones, hybrid cars, and jet-fighter engines to aluminum baseball bats. Such elements also are deemed essential to fielding a new generation of green-energy technologies.

The concern: The US imports almost all of these rare earth elements from China, which currently produces about 97 percent of the world supply. If China were to cut exports for geopolitical leverage, or reduce and tax exports in anticipation of meeting burgeoning internal demand, prices for these elements - and the products they appear in - could jump.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2010/1020/China-s-lock-on-market-for-rare-earth-elements-Why-it-matters

U.S. aims to end China's rare earth metals monopoly

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants more countries to boost production of so-called rare earth metals used in clean energy technology products to break China's monopoly on the supplies, a top Energy Department official told Congress on Thursday.

Diversifying supplies of the rare metals is important to the Obama administration, because they are used in electric cars, solar panels and wind turbines, all of which the White House is promoting in its overhaul of U.S. energy policy.

China accounts for 95 percent of global production of rare earth metals. Its market dominance came in focus this month when industry sources cited concerns Beijing was apparently holding back shipments to Japan. A Japanese trading firm source has said China ended the de facto ban, but Japanese customers are looking elsewhere for supplies.

The incident fueled concern that clean-energy products could become more expensive and harder to manufacture outside of China.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68T68T20100930?irpc=932

Do you want more because I haven't gotten to the business mags yet.

[Knight Hawk]

21. And Bill Clinton let..................

Robert Rubin talk him into getting rid of the Glass/Stegall act............It is not Demos against Repubs its rich vs. middle class,poor etc

[leveymg]

2. The US economy boomed at the birth of the Internet economy, but declined after it matured

Almost anything that can be done here can be done overseas, and now is. That's Bill's legacy.

Unfortunately, there isn't another U.S.-led technological revolution underway -- we didn't invest in the green energy transformation when we could have, we fought a wasteful, losing war for oil, instead -- so, structurally we'll just continue to decline into a middling sort of economy with a middling standard of living for most people.

We only have ourselves to blame for that.

[DJ13]

3. Bill is trying to rewrite history so his actions are not seen as the cause

China's entry into the WTO, NAFTA, and various other trade bills he signed initial triggers for our current decline.

[Hawkowl]

+1

Bill Clinton set the stage for the collapse. He bears an ENORMOUS amount of responsibility for our current economic disaster. Of course Bush gave it the coup de grace with the tax cuts, wars, etc.

[nashville_brook]

17. +100000

[elehhhhna]

20. He signed the bill that removed the banking regs. That really killed us. Bigtime.

Oh, and does "Giant sucking sound" ring a bell, Bill? Not talking about Monica, but our JOBS after you negotiated your Nafta, dumbass.

You DID sign Family Leave Act, then gave our jobs to the lowest bidders. So it's a net loss.

I LOVED the peace and prosperity thing -- just stick with that rhetoric, m'dude?

[KG]

4. bill clinton can take a long walk off a short pier.

[Lars39]

5. Showing his true colors, isn't he.

Despicable sell-out. :grr:

[Brickbat]

6. Fucking nice.

Mr. NAFTA can suck it.

[ThatPoetGuy]

7. Institutions could mean education.

Could we have done more to help the next generation grow up ready to drive the world's economy through technological innovation? Hell yes we could have.

[demosincebirth]

10. Thats exactly what he meant.

[MichiganVote]

13. And education costs $$. Which we don't believe in so ho hum.

[Warpy]

8. Clinton also failed to put up any sort of a fight

when Phil Gramm rammed the repeal of Glass-Steagall through, along with changes to the commodities markets to make it easier for predatory financial institutions to create speculative bubbles. He might have been overruled but we'll never know, will we?

So excuse me, but this is just a little late.

[TimLighter]

9. Oh but Bill, we did change our institutions

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, Nafta/Gatt, repeal of the 1933 Banking reforms(Glass/Stegall),The Financial Services Reform Act of 1998,The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Did I leave any out?

Ya, we changed our institutions all right, for the worse.

[bvar22]

29. Only a couple I can think of:

Most Favored Nation Trade Status for Communist (Slave Labor) China in 1994
http://tech.mit.edu/V114/N27/china.27w.html

The Telecommunications Act 1996
(Rupert Murdoch thanks you, Old Dog.)

[Whisp]

11. smooth talking traitorous fuckhead

[mountainlion55]

27. A most elegant reply Whisp!

DLC= Clinton. DLC= Obama. Is there a pattern here.:smoke:

[Whisp]

28. any President is just a hood ornament on a dangerous machine

but I'd still much prefer a person with Obama's character than a sleaze. :)

[MichiganVote]

12. Pardon me? YOU and the rest of the US legislature changed it in your favor-not ours

[Hannah Bell]

14. clinton, best bud of the bushes. who, btw, were instrumental in "opening" china.

[madrchsod]

16. he`s so 90`s....

[craigmatic]

18. I blame Clinton for signing NAFTA and those other trade deals that sent jobs over seas. It's no

wonder that he's out of the loop when big things are happening at the white house now.

[OHdem10]

23. No disrespect Mr President, but you are begging me to say this.

You signed Nafta and No management of trade policy and
this has directly contributed to the unemployment today.
The Recession has recovered and had Nafta been managed effectivly
there would be hardly any unemployment.

2ond. You signed the repeal of the Law (----Steagall) which
Deregulated the Banks permitting them to use Taxpayers
money to gamble on Wall St. And gamble they did, causing
the GREATEST LOSS Of WEALTH this country has known.

You are correct--It is not China's fault that we lie down
and roll over and appease their every whim.

[Rex]

24. American uber-capitalist are stupid and would kill off their workers only

to hire more. China is the working model American uber-capitalist would love to emulate. Well, in between stealing trillions from the treasury. Can't expect them to just stand up and walk away from a free meal now can we?

[WinkyDink]

25. Who's this "we", White Man?

Boomers get it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. I don't know. As profitable as the Clinton era appeared, I think there

was a lot of dirty business going on. He condoned a lot of campaign donors who was just plain crooked. So I can't say he set the best example.

[PufPuf23]

30. STFU Bill Clinton the neo-liberal tool.

Neither am I the fool to believe this nonsense.

Under Clinton and accelerated under GWB and now POTUS Obama we have sown the general decline for the benefit of a few, not even necessarily tied to nation.

Globalization maximizes profits and tranfers wealth to few but does not maximize utility and kills and sucks capital from local economic niches and communities.

[Dawson Leery]

31. The repeal of the Glass Steagal Act and the passage of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act

as well as giving China favored trading status has much to do with why we are in this mess today.
Germany, for example, opposed such absurd deregulations and deals, today they are the envy of the world with a manufacturing base and trade surplus.

There is no movement to invest in alternative energy, as there is a multi-trillion dollar market for such products and the US is missing out on this.

In fairness, this started with Ronnie Reagan and finished with Bush II. Clinton stopped the attacks on public education, social security, and medicare. So far, Obama
has not or is not willing to put up a fight on these matters.

[jp11]

32. Agreed, Clinton failed, Bush was business as usual and who'd expect HIM to do anything

for the benefit of the people to benefit the country. Bush's interests are the elite's interests, Clinton's interests were supposed to be the same as the rest of us but it didn't quite work like that now did it?

[moondust]

33. "people want to get out of poverty and prosper"

Bill Clinton: Poor kid who wanted to be a rich man.

And now his daughter is married to Wall Street.

[mdmc]

35. we failed to stand up for our working class

We lifted the boats of the third world while sinking our own working class..
the rich and what is left of the middle class is comfortable.. workers suffer,..

[Donnachaidh]

36. I'd really like to know how much Clinton is invested in China and India businesses

Captain Nafta should STFU and go away. He's got NO business blaming US for HIS sins.

[tavalon]

37. Bill, stfu.

[phleshdef]

38. No, the US is declining because we screwed up the path to the surplus that HE left us with.

If Clinton really wants to put a better spin on his place in all of this, he has a very valid argument if he wants to use it.

If the US would have continued on the budget path it was on when he left office and not went into Iraq and wasted an ass load on the war on terror and on needless tax cuts, then we'd have plenty of room to pump REAL money into the economy, into energy, into education. The Republicans would have no effective argument against real stimulative spending and spending on innovation. We'd have started seeing substantial surpluses by now. There would be no discussion over the deficit or the national debt.

People want to ride Bill Clinton over his bad decisions, but they never want to keep that in the context of how different the effect of all that would be if the US was sitting on the surplus that he helped pave the way for. He aimed to fatten "the beast" up as much as possible instead of starve it as Republicans have been doing for over a decade.

[Modern_Matthew]

39. Like ol' Slick was ever part of the solution? Give me a break. nt

[xchrom]

40. shut up, bill. nt

[HughBeaumont]

41. Uh, short of hanging CEOs in the streets, what were we ever GOING to do?

Vote Democratic, get people like free-trade-loving, dereg-happy idiots like Bill Clinton.
Vote Republican, get steroid hypercapitalist worker-fisters like Bewsh and Reagone.

So now that we know voting means nothing more than Rule By Old Testament vs Slightly Less Puritanical Agenda, did you want us to REVOLT?

Is that the answer?

How were we supposed to change shit? Have all of us start our own businesses, hope we'd have a dust-speck chance of competing against corporations, hope that working twice as hard would earn us a living wage and be the one of 10 that doesn't fail?

Have all of us go through 4-8 MORE years of costly and time-consuming education so we'll be nothing more than a society of over-educated & unemployed people whose prosperity doors closed around 2001, thanks to the free trade/job offshoring agenda YOU were 100% on board with?

What were we supposed to DO???

Don't pin the foot-shooting fail of Laissez-faire on me or 94% of the people on this site.

We DID our work.

Evil simply has too much money, power and guns. They co-opted both parties. Democratic congresspersons WANT tax cuts for the rich to continue. That's somehow MY fault?

Point your fingers at your friends, Bill: the insufferable, selfish, deluded and sociopathic wealthy of this country. THEY caused this mess.

[raccoon]

42. Great post! nt

[MadHound]

43. Diverting blame from his own actions,

Such as NAFTA, granting China most favored nation trading status, financial deregulation, shredding the social safety net, etc. etc.

Trying to rewrite his legacy.