Good Article By Stiglitz in Vanity Fair

[dtotire]

The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush
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.

Read the rest:



http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/12/bush200712

[notanotherday]

1. We are clearly a nation of idiots, that have handed the government to the greediest people on earth.

And do not think that the Democrats will be much better, they are already bought and sold to the same group of elitests that write the legislation in the swank office buildings in K-street or Wallstreet.

[Javaman]

2. "Unemployment stands at a respectable 4.6 percent"

ahhh sooo transparently true but only to the extent that is an average and not a median of the unemployed.

some areas of this country have leaped right over recession right into depression.

There are no stats for the unemployed that are no longer eligible for unemployment insurance. I would really love to see that number.