Bush's Economic Policy Options = Let Dollar Freefall & Borrow !

[EVDebs]

Bush's economic policies are an absolute DIASATER. His only options (and Alan "Take Me For a Ride" Greenspan too) are to let the dollar drop like a stone. This is what Nixon had to do in the '70's after the Vietnam postwar inflation and oil price increases.

You have to pay for a war. Republicans have forgotten this somehow. JFK wanted a tax cut in 1962...LBJ gave it and then said 'let's go to war also'. By 1967 a tax SURCHARGE had to be imposed to help pay for the war. Nixon came in after sandbagging the Oct 1968 peace attempts by LBJ/Humphrey (see http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/3621 ) the original "October Surprise". But Nixon imcrementally pulled us out of Vietnam, using the old drug-trafficking operations in the Golden Triangle to help pay for much of the continuing war efforts (after first buying down the Turkish heroin crop--see Alfred McCoy's "Politics of Heroin").

Nixon played games with 'wage and price controls' since he wanted to use this policy to keep prices and wages down long enough to get reelected.

Inflation "stagflation" set in and the We're all Keynesians now comments made us think that Nixon's was the last "liberal" administration !

Bush is stuck in similar fashion. A liquidity trapped fed and a set of twin deficits, budget and trade, along with a population of debtors (savings rate is under 2% and credit card debt under usurious lenders is around $8000 per household see and stock ownership is only around $5000 and up for only a third of households--see
http://www.cardweb.com/cardlearn/faqs/2003/jan/8.xcml
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0108/p09s01-coop.html --

With rising interest rates to help pay for the Iraq war (at $9 billion per month now....) and tax cuts for the wealthy and now Bush saying they will borrow to pay for the "Privatization of Social Security" legacy wish, why the Republican's true legacy is going to be a full blown depression world wide.

Maybe they will impeach him before the Democrats !

[mhr]

1. No - Maybe The Real Reason He Does Not Like To Travel Abroad

Is because he is afraid of not coming home alive.

To that I say - Take More Trips George - We Won't Miss You Here!