President George W Bush has invited world leaders to gather in the US by the end of the year to discuss reform of the global financial system.
The summit would be the first of a series announced after talks between Mr Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and EU Commission chief Manuel Barroso.
But the agenda is unclear and differences are already emerging.
Mr Bush said any plan must not undermine free markets. Mr Sarkozy said “hateful practices” must be abandoned.
Before he arrived at Camp David, the US presidential retreat in the state of Maryland, the French leader warned the world could not “continue to run the economy of the 21st Century with instruments of the economy of the 20th Century”…
It stands repeating: Mr. Bush said any plan MUST NOT undermine FREE MARKETS.
Should one use mainly Mr. Bush’s wisdom in the “managing of a country’s or the world’s economy?
Mr. Bush seems to want to hang on to the neocons “experimental economics”. The neocons, far right of the traditional centrist Republicans, have just proved they can CRASH the economy of the STRONGEST country in the world.
And remember, America has “experience” with a wrecked economy - the 1930s depression. Did America learn anything from that 30s depression? You bet! Based upon that experience of the 1930s, America tried to “protect” itself against a future economic depression. America protected its citizen’s bank accounts up to a certain amount of money.
A Democratic President signed off on that new law.
If it were not for that single act of the 1930s, it is likely that today, no one would even be waiting around, for the Bush team to define this economic “thingy”. Americans would likely already know.
Just what kind of intellect would Americans need – to be persuaded to continue to follow a failing economic idea?
It only took the neocons five years to wreck the economy of the strongest country in the world. In 2003, Mr Bush , himself, described America’s economy this way:
…Our economy is healthy and vigorous, and growing faster than other major industrialized nations. In the last two-and-a-half years, America has created 4.6 million new jobs — more than Japan and the European Union combined. (Applause.) Even in the face of higher energy prices and natural disasters, the American people have turned in an economic performance that is the envy of the world.
The American economy is preeminent, but we cannot afford to be complacent. In a dynamic world economy, we are seeing new competitors, like China and India, and this creates uncertainty, which makes it easier to feed people’s fears. So we’re seeing some old temptations return. Protectionists want to escape competition, pretending that we can keep our high standard of living while walling off our economy. Others say that the government needs to take a larger role in directing the economy, centralizing more power in Washington and increasing taxes. We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy — even though this economy could not function without them. (Applause.) All these are forms of economic retreat, and they lead in the same direction — toward a stagnant and second-rate economy…
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/01/20060131-10.html
Just five years later, 2008, and still under the neocon’s watch, Mr. Bush described America’s economy this way:
“Entire Economy Is In Danger”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/24/bush-warns-of-long-and-pa_n_129097.html
Look at how the neocons managed America’s wealth:
Focus on and mentally group the names of the Presidents near the lines with the negative slope or black color. That would group TRUMAN, IKE, KENNEDY AND LBJ, NIXON AND FORD, CARTER AND CLINTON.
THE positive slope or red-line color would group BUSH, REAGAN AND W. BUSH.
The first group contains Democrats and Republicans. The second group contains only Republicans. One group seems to have a “need” to spend, spend, spend. The other group does not exhibit that need to spend, spend, spend.
If you wanted sage advice on managing the economy of the “strongest country on earth” which group type would you rather select from?
Tags: Camp David, economy, free markets, global financial system, hateful practices, mr. sarkozy, president george w. bush, reform, republicans
