Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2009 22:58:11 -0800 (PST) From: marlon menezes <[email protected]>
<begin quote by Marlon in 2005> The US economy is indeed doing great. Or is it? see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoenchimXapotam/message/9078 <begin quote by Mario in 2005> I think we deserve to be at least a LITTLE smug now, because a "dummy" of a President confounded his critics one more time, took a declining economy and turned it around with policies that have caused huge tax increases for the economy with lower taxes for each taxpayer, <end quote> Mario responds: I looked in vain for something wrong in my quote above. The US economy did do well for seven years after Bush cut tax rates and created record tax revenues. I have frequently criticised President Bush for being unable to curb wasteful government spending, which Marlon conveniently ignores. Yeah, Bush was wrong to join the push for minority home ownership through lowered lending standards, but even a strident Bush-critic like you have to agree that we are going from the frying pan into the fire, and your narrow-minded and unbalanced criticisms contributed to this. The low income housing boom accelerated following the big push under Clinton, where Janet Reno was threatening the banks with lawsuits if they did not comply with the Community Reinvestment Act and the banks joined the party because they could all make big bonuses by laying the risks off the Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. Were you even aware that the biggest political recipients of PAC money from these quasi-government organizations were not Bush or any Republican, but Obama, Dodd and Frank, not Bush or McCain? Ever wonder why? John McCain tried to stem the tide but was falsely tagged with the crisis by the Obama obsessed media during the election campaign. See, http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/do_facts_matter.html Where were you when all this was brewing? Anyone familiar with American business cycles would know that even pessimists like you, after being wrong for seven years, will eventually be correct as a business cycle ends. Marlon wrote: Unfortunately, I AM WITH Mario now, in that the new US administration is only stoking the fire with its excessive spending. One does not solve the problem of excessive debt by going into even more debt. All it is doing now is replacing private debt with govt debt. I'm putting my money into certain commodities, clean tech and non heavily export dependent economies like India. Mario responds: Unfortunately, it is short-sighted know-it-all critics like you who enabled the current admistration to prevail in the last election, and the whole world is likely to pay a heavy price of slowing down the world's economic engine and making it more like Europe. Will "clean tech" survive the Obama administration's subsidies when the US will return to more free market policies? Billions of government subsidies in clean tech over the last 25 years have gone down the drain. Boone Pickens has lost billions in clean tech. "non heavily export dependent economies like India"? Are we forgetting "exports" of outsourced services from India which are sucking fumes currently, with Asif Premji imploring Obama to modify his protectionist tendencies? Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:40:31 -0800 (PST) From: marlon menezes <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Goanet] Why the West's luck has run out Secondly, the two countries that have been the most badly affected by the banking crisis are the US and England. Mario responds: The UK is heavily regulated. The US financial crisis was created by government regulation. It's called the Community Reinvestment Act. Now, critics like you have given us the most left wing administration in US history. You are going to get regulation like you have never seen before. I hope you are happy.
