George W is banging on about free markets at the APEC Conference presently underway in Peru.
That he still doesn't get it is obvious. His economy is tanking - in no small measure because of free market forces in the US and a totally de-regulated economy - and world-wide everyone is waiting on Obama to get into the White House in 2 months time.
Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman, writing his regular column in the IHT:
"Everyone's talking about a new New Deal, for obvious reasons. In 2008, as in 1932, a long era of Republican political dominance came to an end in the face of an economic and financial crisis that, in voters' minds, both discredited the Republican Party's free-market ideology and undermined its claims of competence. And for those on the progressive side of the political spectrum here in the U.S., these are hopeful times.
There is, however, another and more disturbing parallel between 2008 and 1932 - namely, the emergence of a power vacuum at the height of the crisis. The interregnum of 1932-1933, the long stretch between the election and the actual transfer of power, was disastrous for the U.S. economy, at least in part because the outgoing administration had no credibility, the incoming administration had no authority and the ideological chasm between the two sides was too great to allow concerted action. And the same thing is happening now.
It's true that the interregnum will be shorter this time: FDR wasn't inaugurated until March; Barack Obama will move into the White House on Jan. 20. But crises move faster these days."
Meanwhile, Gail Collins, writing in the NY Times "Time for Him to Go", has a very sound suggestion for George W to move on out of the White House right now - and let Obama take the reins so as to rescue the ailing American economy:
"Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning.
Seriously. We have an economy that’s crashing and a vacuum at the top. Bush — who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian leaders who no longer care what he thinks — hasn’t got the clout, or possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing representatives of the world’s most important economies on the glories of free-market capitalism.
Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn’t impossible. Dick Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his resignation first. (We’re desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become president until Jan. 20. Obviously, she’d defer to her party’s incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could begin governing."
That he still doesn't get it is obvious. His economy is tanking - in no small measure because of free market forces in the US and a totally de-regulated economy - and world-wide everyone is waiting on Obama to get into the White House in 2 months time.
Nobel Prize winner, Paul Krugman, writing his regular column in the IHT:
"Everyone's talking about a new New Deal, for obvious reasons. In 2008, as in 1932, a long era of Republican political dominance came to an end in the face of an economic and financial crisis that, in voters' minds, both discredited the Republican Party's free-market ideology and undermined its claims of competence. And for those on the progressive side of the political spectrum here in the U.S., these are hopeful times.
There is, however, another and more disturbing parallel between 2008 and 1932 - namely, the emergence of a power vacuum at the height of the crisis. The interregnum of 1932-1933, the long stretch between the election and the actual transfer of power, was disastrous for the U.S. economy, at least in part because the outgoing administration had no credibility, the incoming administration had no authority and the ideological chasm between the two sides was too great to allow concerted action. And the same thing is happening now.
It's true that the interregnum will be shorter this time: FDR wasn't inaugurated until March; Barack Obama will move into the White House on Jan. 20. But crises move faster these days."
Meanwhile, Gail Collins, writing in the NY Times "Time for Him to Go", has a very sound suggestion for George W to move on out of the White House right now - and let Obama take the reins so as to rescue the ailing American economy:
"Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning.
Seriously. We have an economy that’s crashing and a vacuum at the top. Bush — who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian leaders who no longer care what he thinks — hasn’t got the clout, or possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing representatives of the world’s most important economies on the glories of free-market capitalism.
Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn’t impossible. Dick Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his resignation first. (We’re desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become president until Jan. 20. Obviously, she’d defer to her party’s incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could begin governing."
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