On Sep 29, 2008, at 2:47 PM, Remi Cornwall wrote:
Tell me something, is a president of the USA largely titular like a
British
monarch or do they have real power. Is it government by cabinet or
leader-centric?
Well, the President has real power in a few areas and has to get
Congress to go along in others. Normally, the president can get his
way, as Iraq demonstrated. At the present time, Bush is not trusted,
not believed, and has only a few more months in office. This means his
power is significantly reduced, except to produce mischief. Or in the
case of the financial problem, the power to ignore a gaping wound
until the patient is about to die, whereupon he panics.
The government has a cabinet that is appointed by the president, which
reflects his values and competence. The Secretary of the Treasury,
Paulson is a member. Unfortunately, up to a few weeks ago, he thought
the system was doing ok even though many experts saw the train wreak
coming.
As to whether Bush is responsible for this mess, the President sets
the tone, the agenda and can stir up voters to get certain laws
passed. This President set a tone of incompetence based on having the
proper political or religious views, the agenda was designed to allow
the market to do whatever it wanted, and the laws he pushed favored
the rich and powerful. Now, people see the scam for what it was and
are rebelling.
Ed
-----Original Message-----
From: Edmund Storms [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 29 September 2008 20:43
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Cc: Edmund Storms
Subject: Re: [Vo]:OFF TOPIC News of the bailout
The people who nuked the deal are the people who do not trust the
administration and who, in addition to listening to the voters, were
able to hear what various economists are saying. Of course, it helps
to be very conservative or very liberal. Thank heaven, there was
enough independent thinking this time to not create another Iraq in
the financial world.
Ed
On Sep 29, 2008, at 1:30 PM, Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
News stories I'm seeing make it sound like it was the conservative
Republicans who nuked the deal.
With Barney Frank as lead representative on the bill, in the end it
was
apparently, in some sense, a Democratic initiative(?) or at any rate
it
was certainly bi-partisan.
