Bush says coordinated action saved world economy

Wednesday 14th October, 01:55 PM JST

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TheQuestion at 10:51 PM JST - 14th October

That must be because, as every good Conservative and Rush Limpbough knows, the global recession that erupted on GWB's watch is all President Obama's fault.

First and foremost I am not a conservative, I am not a republican, and I don't listen to Rush. I am a pro-property libertarian, as such I believe in strong personal rights, minimal government control, and that liberty is the only thing that can be legitimately demanded of others as a matter of legal or political right. However I do favor a strong national defense and other necessary works such as road maintenance.

That said,

Recession happens, it's a fact, to forget that is a gross ignorance of the market system. It happend earlier this decade and at least once in every decade preceeding it. Recession doesn't occure due to any regulation (although such measures may stagnate an industry) it occures because the market reaches a tipping point where consumers have overspent and producers have overproduced.

I blame neither the current nor previous president for 'letting' the recession happen, but I resent any and all attempts to 'fix' it. The economy of the U.S and of most of the industrialized world operates under its own terms and any attempt to alter those terms shift it, they don't help and they don't hinder, they merely create new obstacals by removing old ones.
Sarge at 10:57 PM JST - 14th October

"Recession happens"

And when it happens just before an election, the ruling party often gets tossed out by gutless voters.
SuperLib at 11:14 PM JST - 14th October

I mostly agree with with Bush said. And if Obama had said it I'd agree with him, too. It's kind of cool how that works out when you look at the situation and not base decisions on who like more.
yabits at 11:42 PM JST - 14th October

Some of my decisions ran counter to my philosophy...

In other words, Bush is admitting his philosophy doesn't mean a hill of beans when it's crunch time. This is the utter faithlessness at the core of what Bush and his apologists stand for.
yabits at 11:43 PM JST - 14th October

The economy of the U.S and of most of the industrialized world operates under its own terms and any attempt to alter those terms shift it, they don't help and they don't hinder, they merely create new obstacals by removing old ones.

In short, TheQuestion has no answers.
usaexpat at 01:06 AM JST - 15th October

So this is the economy that was saved? What Bush did was no better or worse than Obama's porkulus or takeover of GM. All unnecessary generators of red ink that did not stop the economy from crashing.
zurcronium at 03:09 AM JST - 15th October

to be clear about this bush ran up $700 billion plus in debt to bail out AIG and Goldman Sachs. Obama is investing in main street saving constuction jobs and teacher jobs, hundreds of thousands of them.

Bush did what he did cause he was told to do so by his finance people. Bush did not understand what was going on as has been reported, he did know it violated his stupid free market fantasy. But if he had not acted the markets would have collapsed totally and the great depression would be minor by comparison.

So once again Keynesian economics saves the day and the libertarian fountain head reading loonies who think markets fix themselves are left sucking wind. Again. Just ask your hero Greenspan who apologized for screwing up so badly.
TheQuestion at 03:38 AM JST - 15th October

In short, TheQuestion has no answers.

I was never asked for one. I do know how we got into this mess. We did it by spending more than we were making, taking out mortgauges that we couldn't pay back, and refusing to utilize the available materials around us.

The 'answer' to the recession is already happening, people are scaling back on luxury and import goods, they're buying cheap and when they're not buying cheap they buy domestic, people are banking more. The same thing happened after the depression, my grandfather still doesn't trust banks (guess the jokes on us). In the next decade we will continue the economic clamp down, many businesses will die off but it will be necessary. After the waryness finally subsides we begin spending again, increase investing, and they we enter another expantionary phase it's happened as long as the concept of economics has been understood.

But if he had not acted the markets would have collapsed totally and the great depression would be minor by comparison.

Good, hard times keep the weak and the stupid out of business, as it should. Every bank that recieved TARP should have been liquidated and their assets sold off to healthy banks.

stupid free market fantasy

Oh yes, nothing could be more terrifying than letting people make their own choices and take responcibility for their actions. Please, great sages in washington who's wisedome knows no bounds relieve me from this pressure of deciding when and where to spend my money. I only worked my ass off to get it, what gives me the right to spend it as I will. Oh woe is me.

Greenspan who apologized for screwing up so badly.

Greenspan was the chairmen of the federal reserve, the federal reserve represents the market system about as much as a sickle and hammer represent capitalism.
bdiego at 03:56 AM JST - 15th October

Anyone who blames one party or group of people is going to be wrong on this one. The blame actually covers the majority of people. Just to name one example, people are still vandalizing their own homes as they're waiting for years for the banks to foreclose. Everything stripped bare. This leaves the repairs to the next buyer, and the costs to the banks, the government that owns them, and thereby all taxpayers.

Yeah, Bush gets part of the blame but it's overblown. Bush and Rush are not real conservatives anyways, just fascist cheerleaders. Anyone who is anti-Constitution, pro-intervention war, and pro-deficit is not a conservative. But they pretend to be by being for "tax cuts that pay for themselves".
bushlover at 06:33 AM JST - 15th October

Mr. Bush is a very influential man what with all the people still talking about him almost a year after his final term ended.
SuperLib at 09:59 AM JST - 15th October

But if he had not acted the markets would have collapsed totally and the great depression would be minor by comparison.

TheQuestion: Good, hard times keep the weak and the stupid out of business, as it should. Every bank that recieved TARP should have been liquidated and their assets sold off to healthy banks.

This wasn't a "don't let them fail to protect jobs and lessen a recession." It was more like "don't let them fail because the entire economic system will collapse and it will be the end of life as we know it." I don't think people really understand how close we were to that. It wasn't about some people losing their jobs, it was about the entire concept of debt, mortgages, wages, etc, all failing. And for a couple of weeks it was touch and go...literally.
TheQuestion at 10:41 AM JST - 15th October

I don't think people really understand how close we were to that. It wasn't about some people losing their jobs, it was about the entire concept of debt, mortgages, wages, etc, all failing.

If the system can't sustain itself than we only delayed the inevitable collapse at the expense of billions of dollars. There were some banks that would have continued functioning and even profited from the vacuume left by the other power players demise. Wells Fargo didn't even need the money, just a few days before it received its 'bailout' package of 25 billion dollars it bought Wachovia right out from under Citigroups (at that time controlled by the FDIC) nose for $14.8 billion dollars.

The only thing we got out of the bailout was a few hundred hours of sound bites on the news from people pissed off about bonuses and maybe a few more years of stagnating business practices by the banking industry before it goes belly up.
smithinjapan at 03:42 PM JST - 15th October

bushlover: "Mr. Bush is a very influential man what with all the people still talking about him almost a year after his final term ended."

People still talk about Hitler, too. What's your point? When the majority of what's said about the person -- world wide -- is negative, that makes the person INfamous... not famous. Oh, and infamous is not a good thing.
Junnama at 03:43 PM JST - 15th October

bushlover: "Mr. Bush is a very influential man what with all the people still talking about him almost a year after his final term ended."

We also still talking about the Titanic and that was what 90 years ago or something...
bushlover at 03:58 AM JST - 16th October

So where in my statement did you not find a neutral comment? Some people are so obsessed!!