Showing posts with label George Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George Bush. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Niall Ferguson on George W. Bush

From Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money, paperback, Penguin Books, 2008-09, page 119:

During [George W.] Bush's time in the White House, his administration ran a budget deficit in seven out of eight years. The federal debt increased from $5 trillion to more than $9 trillion. In 2008 the Congressional Budget Office forecast a continued rise [in the federal debt] to more than $12 trillion in 2017.

Where was the anti-spending Tea Party then?

Bonus: It is no coincidence that in English the root of "credit" is credo, the Latin for "I believe." (page 31).

Page 36: "For Christians, lending money at interest was a sin. Usurers, people who lent money at interest, had been excommunicated by the Third Lateran Council in 1179. Even arguing that usury was not a sin had been condemned as heresy by the Council of Vienna in 1311-12...

See Deuteronomy: 'Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury.' In other words, a Jew might legitimately lend to a Christian, though not to another Jew. The price of doing so was social exclusion." (pages 36-37)

Money is worth only what someone else is willing to give you for it. An increase in its supply will not make a society richer, though it may enrich the government that monopolizes the production of money. Other things being equal, monetary expansion will merely make prices higher. (page 27, on inflation)

"The Weimar tax system [which led to massive inflation, making the German mark basically worthless] was feeble, not least because the new regime lacked legitimacy among higher income groups who declined to pay the taxes imposed on them. At the same time, public money was spent recklessly, particularly on generous wage settlements for public sector unions." (See page 104. My reaction? The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

Once there had been meaningful social ties between mortgage lenders and borrowers. Jimmy Stewart [in It's a Wonderful Life] knew both the depositors and the debtors. By contrast, in a securitized market (just like in space) no one can hear you scream--because the interest you pay on your mortgage is ultimately going to someone who has no idea you exist. (page 262)

"Roughly two fifths [40%] of the world's population is effectively outside the financial system, without access to bank accounts, much less credit." (page 282)

On LTCM: At the end of August 1997 [prior to the its collapse in August 1998] the fund's capital was $6.7 billion, but the debt-financed assets on its balance sheet amounted to $126.4 billion, a ratio of assets to capital of 19 to 1...On Friday 21 August 1998, it lost 550 million--15 per cent of its entire capital, driving its leverage up to 42:1. (pages 324, 327)

"In 2007, the United States needed to borrow around $800 billion from the rest of the world; more than $4 billion every working day. China, by contrast, ran a current account surplus of $262 billion, equivalent to more than a quarter of the U.S. deficit." (page 355)

Note: Italy invented banking; the Dutch founded the first joint-stock company (i.e., stocks); France founded the first central bank; and the Scots founded the first insurance company.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The George Bush of Iran

Ahmadinejad is the "George Bush of Iran": both tortured people, hate government transparency, answer to a shadowy figure (Cheney vs. Khamenei), jailed people without giving them a public trial, stole an election, think God is on their side, and ran the economy into the ground! What more do you need, except the smirk?

If this were a Tom Toles cartoon, the lower right hand portion of the drawing would read, "One person isn't responsible for unnecessarily killing 100,000 Iraqis and 4,200 Americans. Almost a perfect match."

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Guantanamo held a 12 year old boy

Congrats to all the Americans who supported Guantanamo under Bush. You favored locking up a 12 year old indefinitely without a trial:

http://sanfranciscochronicle.info/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/05/25/international/i114756D65.DTL

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/us-lawyers-ask-afghan-court-to-help-gitmo-inmate 

U.S. military lawyers asked Afghanistan's highest court Monday to demand the release of a Guantanamo prisoner they say was only about 12 years old — not 18, as the military maintains — when he was sent to the detention center in Cuba.


We knew President Bush was relying on secret evidence and refusing to be transparent. These kinds of embarrassments always happen when citizens don't demand government transparency. The government gets away with violating the Constitution and destroys our goodwill in the process.

Many years ago, I attended a speech by an ACLU attorney who was representing some of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. She told everyone, in a public meeting, that America was holding a 12 years old child in Guantanamo without a trial. If I remember correctly, she also said Guantanamo was holding a 75 years old man. Everyone knew. No one listened.

The next time you decide to trust your government, just ask yourself, "Is secrecy worth violating our own Constitution, the rule of law, checks and balances, and our goodwill?"

© Matthew Rafat (2009)

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. --Benjamin Franklin

I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. --Patrick Henry

Friday, March 13, 2009

Calling All Bush II Supporters

To those of you who supported George W. Bush, WSJ letter-writer Mr. Concini has some words for you:

During the eight years of his administration the unemployment rate went from 4.2% to 7.2%; consumer confidence dropped to an all-time low; a budget surplus of $200 billion became a deficit of over $1 trillion; more than a million families fell into poverty; six million more people lost health insurance; gains of our economic growth went almost entirely to the rich, while middle- and low-income families lost ground; the unnecessary Iraq war caused huge suffering and detracted from the more serious threat in Afghanistan; and perhaps less quantifiably, we suffered a world-wide decline of respect, prestige and power.

Maybe not the worst, but certainly a contender.

Dino J. De Concini
Washington

Ouch. From what I remember, George Bush the First was a fairly decent man. Just goes to show you: monarchies and royal families, no matter their various permutations, don't work.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Wise Words from Bush (Yup, You Read that Right)



Oh, the wisdom before an election.

Update: from the year 2000 debates, George W. Bush:

Q: How would you project us around the world?

A: "I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say this is the way it's got to be...one way for us to be viewed as the ugly American is for us to go around the world saying, 'We do it this way, so should you.' ... If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us."  

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bush Gets It Right

President George Bush explained the banking problems rippling through the economy as a drunken binge that has resulted in a hangover:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7522335.stm

Apparently, this is news to some people and/or has offended some people. President Bush actually explained this one perfectly. I don't understand the controversy. If you're going to attack him for something, try his earlier linking of 9/11 to Iraq. Don't attack him for something when he makes sense.

Update on July 24, 2008: David Ellison in today's WSJ, C1, uses the same terminology as Bush: "Half of an alcoholic's problem, Mr. Ellison said, 'is admitting he's an alcoholic.'"