Archive for category economy
Dear Prudence
Posted by zoboxrox in charity, economy, health, human rights, international, science, tragedy on January 18th, 2010
Haiti, 2008
While the images coming out of Haiti since the January 12th earthquake are heartbreaking, images of Haiti before the massive devastation are nearly as appalling. For many, just one week ago, it was simply easier not to look.
Haiti has long been the pariah of the Western Hemisphere, deemed the poorest country, many Americans don’t even realize it shares an island, Hispaniola, with popular hot spot the Dominican Republic. With HIV rates unheard of on this side of the world, not to mention Malaria and a killer strain of drug resistant Tuberculosis, and levels of poverty we have only seen in Hollywood films, Americans have found it surprisingly easy to overlook Haiti’s hellish existence in the past, despite its close proximity and dire need for aide. And while there are those who have dedicated their lives to moving mountains in this forgotten place (Paul Farmer and his Partners in Health comes to mind most immediately, but there are certainly others as well, many with little to no recognition at all), there is no question that Haiti has been more or less abandoned by the rest of the world.
While the media provides us with day to day body counts and relays gruesome details of injuries and loss, forcing us to see what we’ve ignored for so long, racking up donations from the college student text messager to the saintly celebrity givers, I can only wonder, if this Disaster Relief had poured in years ago, would we be facing the situation we are facing today?
Jian Lin, a WHOI senior scientist in geology and geophysics, said that there were three factors that made the quake particularly devastating: First, it was centered just 10 miles southwest of the capital city, Port au Prince; second, the quake was shallow—only about 10-15 kilometers below the land’s surface; third, and more importantly, many homes and buildings in the economically poor country were not built to withstand such a force and collapsed or crumbled.
When there are no roads, no hospitals, no doctors, no reliable government, no one to really trust, how far can the money go? Perhaps the lesson here is of prudent giving — spending money earlier, before its too late.
Why why why why why?
Posted by zoboxrox in corporate america, economy, health, human rights, international, malfunction, politics, religion, tragedy on August 17th, 2009
So, the major problem with American Democracy is that it is representative: we elect people who we feel will represent our views within the legislative body upon which they sit – we do not participate in our democracy directly — we are not always privy to the actual truth. Majority rules, and so depending on where you are and who won your local elections, this means you may not be represented at all. If your guy lost, then basically, you’re voice remains silent as your elected representative fulfills the needs of most of the people, which could be as little as one percentage point over half, in your district/county/state.
The reason this is a major problem, it seems pretty clear to me now, is that the majority of Americans are at worst stupid, and at best simply irresponsible, ignorant, gullible, stubborn, and set in their ways. What always amazes me is the fact that people actually vote against what’s in their own best interest: fiscally, the Republican Party only benefits around 5% of the population.
With Universal Health Care we meet a similar problem. Many of the people who’s lives would be improved by it, are being lied to and misinformed. Take this guy, for instance, who if you can believe it, is actually a Senator, Chuck Grassley of Iowa. He doesn’t even come close to answering the question he’s been asked, and then he lies, repeatedly, to those who he is supposed to be representing:
Come on Chuck. LETS BE TRUTHFUL!!
So here are the Top 5 lies about some of our health care options, and the one truth standing in its way:
LIES:
1. Single Payer Health Care is the same thing Socialized Medicine: NOT TRUE
Socialized Medicine doesn’t actually exist, but if it did, it would still be different than Single Payer System. Under “socialized medicine” the doctors work for the government directly. Single Payer simply means there is a single fund or insurance company which is making payments aka “centralized payment”:
Single-payer health insurance is a term used in the United States to describe the legislated insurance of individuals by way of centralized payment of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers and facilities…. The administrator of the fund could be the government but it could also be a publicly owned agency regulated by law
2. Socialized Medicine leads to Socialism: NOT TRUE
We currently have socialized the following industries, and I’m pretty sure most every American, red-blooded or blue, would like to keep it this way: The Police Department, The Fire Department, The United States Postal Service, The Public Education System, The Public Library, and Neighborhood Parks and Recreational Services.
Imagine the outrage if we decided to privatize fire services, and unless you had insurance, your local department, no matter how close or how able, would simply let your house burn down. And we don’t talk about a government run Fire Department - it has not communalized our way of life, nor taken control of our personal liberties. It is simply something no American could imagine living without, which is exactly how they feel about health care in the countries where it is free.
3. Universal Health Care would be more expensive than our current system: NOT TRUE
Turns out, we spend more right now, both individually and as a nation, than we would in a government funded option.
A 2003 study examined costs and outputs in the U.S and other industrialized countries and broadly concluded that the U.S spends so much because its health care system is more costly. It noted that “…the United States spent considerably more on health care than any other country…[yet] most measures of aggregate utilization such as physician visits per capita and hospital days per capita were below the OECD median. Since spending is a product of both the goods and services used and their prices, this implies that much higher prices are paid in the United States than in other countries.
Perhaps it has something to do with the $71 Billion that Pfizer raked in last year, or the $61 Billion Johnson & Johnson made on pharmaceutical products alone.
4. Health Care in countries with a Universal System suffers in quality as a result: NOT TRUE
Not only is health care in the United States more expensive than it is in any other “first world” country, it turns out, its also not as good. I have this argument all the time: “Oh but we have by far the best health care in the world…” or “I’d rather be in a hospital in America than anywhere else….” Funny. The World Health Organization disagrees with you. As do over half of the citizens of Western Europe.
See here. Or here. Or here. Or here.
5. The government wants to create “Death Panels” in order to kill your elderly grandmother or your disabled child: JUST SO NOT TRUE
While a “death panel” more or less already exists, its called an insurance company, this particular piece of nonsense actually stems from a bill, written by a Republican member of Congress mind you, which requested that, part of health care reform would include end of life counseling for those approaching death. The horrors!
A couple months ago I had the opportunity to see New York Times contributor Jane Brody speak on her newest book, Jane Brody’s Guide to the Great Beyond: A Practical Primer to Help You and Your Loved Ones Prepare Medically, Legally, and Emotionally for the End of Life. As someone who, throughout her entire career has focused on living well and prolonging a healthy life, I can truly say Jane Brody is not the kind of person who would kill your grandma. She is, however, knowledgeable enough on the subject of death, that I trust her when she says the following: receive End of Life counseling, have a living will and a health care proxy, if you are in a situation where death is a possibility, acknowledge that!
So if your little old grandma is sitting at home alone, listening to conservative talk radio, clutching her shotgun and trembling in fear for her life, please just bring her a newspaper. If she can’t see the tiny print, read it out loud to her! Because right now, the people she’s supposed to be able to trust, well they’re lying and it ain’t helping granny out one little bit.
Texas, Taxes, and Teabagging
Posted by zoboxrox in corporate america, economy, malfunction, politics on April 20th, 2009
Hasn’t anyone else noticed that the words “Texas” and “Taxes” are practically identical? It’s as if they were made for each other. And yet the Lone Star State has always had a strained relationship with the federal government over the levies imposed upon them. In fact, Texas is so opposed to taxes they are one of only six states that have completely eliminated the state income tax. So if you live and work in Texas you are already forking over 5-15% less of your income than the average American. This fact has made the state a haven for businesses and corporations, most notably Fortune 500 companies, of which Texas is base for 58, and the 33 billionaires who make their home there. If Texas were an independent nation, it would rank as the fifteenth largest economy in the world. In other words, when it comes to the economy, Texans ain’t doin so bad.
Or so they would like us to believe. In actuality, Texas is suffering, and has been for a long time. Of the top ten counties in the US with people living below the poverty line, Texas is home to three of them (Starr County, TX for instance has a rate of 47.4%). The dark red areas of the map below mark counties in which 15.6% - 47.4% of the population lives below the poverty line. 
The geographical inequalities on the map are so noticeable its embarrassing. And yet, despite their already small tax burden, and the obvious need for state-wide services, not to mention the past eight years when we’ve spent our way into a deficit thanks to a native son, Texans went out in the dozens on April 15th to protest something, I’m not sure what. What ensued was a major blunder by the Texas Governor, Rick Perry, (apparently being a moron is a job requirement), during which he openly discussed seceding from the Union: “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that.” Idiot.
I think David Axelrod said it best:
“The thing that bewilders me is that this president just cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people”
While they may like to think it, most Texans are not in the top 5 percent.
Looking Good, Feeling Better
The following is an article I wrote for a local paper. Its a little off-subject for ZoboxPolitix, but interesting none-the-less (also contains foto of ZOBOXROX… can you spot me?):
At a time when people are gripping their wallets just a little bit tighter, The Bereavement Center of Westchester finds unique ways to make ends meet. With the help of local businesses and the enormous generosity of 109 Pondfield Salon owners, Nick and Mark DeVincenzo, BCW threw their sixth annual Evening of Bliss Friday, March 13th. While this is but one of many fundraising efforts for the center, it is special in the way it gives back to both its donors and its community at large.
The Bereavement Center opened its doors in 1995, through the efforts of Jansen Memorial Hospital and The Junior League of Bronxville. The Center offers a variety of programs to help individuals and families cope with the death of a significant person in their life, which include the Tree House program, dedicated to helping children and their parent or guardian process their feelings of grief, the School Outreach program offers both assistance and consultation to help school communities create safe, supportive environments for grieving children and teens. They also offer Adult Groups throughout the year and Individual Counseling for those adults and children who need personal guidance and attention.
While BCW caters to many groups, the eight-week long Tree House Program is the cornerstone of the Center, providing grief support specifically designed for children, ages 4-18, who have lost a parent or a sibling. Connie Moustakes, a 12-year veteran of the volunteer program and board member describes the Tree House as “a safe place [for kids] to tell their story without feeling the isolation of loss. The program gives them the tools and language to discuss their feelings with others.”
109 Pondfield Salon owner Nick DeVincenzo understands the struggle of dealing with grief at a young age. Growing up in war-torn Italy as the fourth of eight children, Nick experienced his first major loss when he was only eleven and his father died. While the next decade was filled with hardship, he found himself in Bronxville by his twenty-first birthday. This April, 109 Pondfield will celebrate its 48th year of operation, and what started as four chairs in a small store-front, has evolved into an elegant, yet refreshingly welcoming high end salon.
Nick gushes when he tells me about his youngest daughter, who is in the middle of her residency at Yale University Hospital. “We try to give as much as we can back to Bronxville because it was very good to us,” he says, when I ask him about the past six years of hosting the Bliss event. “I look forward to it every year. Its our way to help serve the people – everybody,” which is exactly how Nick runs his business.
Just ask his son, Mark, who six years ago joined his father three days a week at 109, for the first time in his long and illustrious career, which began at an apprenticeship with Vidal Sassoon, and has more recently been spent as the creative director of the Frederic Fekkai salon on Fifth Avenue. Of his father he says, “Nick taught me to do business the way you should – honestly and humbly.” In turn they have found themselves, “fortunate enough to be able to give back to the community.”
On top of the absolutely fabulous hair styling from 109 Pondfield (and my own personal makeover from Mark himself!), this year’s Evening of Bliss also included mini neck massages from Peter Iocovello of the Village Day Spa, makeup by Maison Rouge, wine donated by Eddie Dowd, and delicious munchies provided by Steven Palm, followed by dinner at his restaurant Underhills Crossing, with 20% of the proceeds going to BCW. In addition, four local businesses, J. McLaughlin, Kensington Paper, Mano a Mano, and Toney, Toni and the Gang, joined in on the Bliss, donating 10% of their profits from Friday to the Center.
Laura, a donor and attendee of the Evening, despite never having used the Center herself raved about its positive effects on both the community and individuals she has known in the past. She described the event as, “a really special night of bonding for an incredibly good cause. I came back from out of town and shopped all day just to be a part of it.”
And I don’t blame her. When it comes to looking good and feeling good, An Evening of Bliss at 109 Pondfield worked perfectly to provide truly that.
Ground Breaking
Posted by zoboxrox in economy, environment, health, politics on March 22nd, 2009
On October 12, 2008 The New York Times Magazine published an open letter to the next “Farmer in Chief” written by Michael Pollan. In it he pleaded for the next president, either Obama or McCain at this point, to acknowledge the food/health crisis plaguing our country, from obesity to diabetes to antibiotics to pollution. Of the many things of which he spoke, he asked, perhaps most importantly, the future President to set an example for the American public.
Finally, there is the power of the example you set in the White House. If what’s needed is a change of culture in America’s thinking about food, then how America’s first household organizes its eating will set the national tone, focusing the light of public attention on the issue and communicating a simple set of values that can guide Americans toward sun-based foods and away from eating oil….
Since enhancing the prestige of farming as an occupation is critical to developing the sun-based regional agriculture we need, the White House should appoint, in addition to a White House chef, a White House farmer. This new post would be charged with implementing what could turn out to be your most symbolically resonant step in building a new American food culture. And that is this: tear out five prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn and plant in their place an organic fruit and vegetable garden.
When Eleanor Roosevelt did something similar in 1943, she helped start a Victory Garden movement that ended up making a substantial contribution to feeding the nation in wartime. (Less well known is the fact that Roosevelt planted this garden over the objections of the U.S.D.A., which feared home gardening would hurt the American food industry.) By the end of the war, more than 20 million home gardens were supplying 40 percent of the produce consumed in America. The president should throw his support behind a new Victory Garden movement, this one seeking “victory” over three critical challenges we face today: high food prices, poor diets and a sedentary population.
Well it looks like someone read the letter. On the first day of Spring, Michelle Obama broke ground at the White House:
…to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern.
“My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”
The total cost of seeds, mulch and so forth is $200, said Sam Kass, an assistant White House chef, who prepared healthful meals for the Obama family in Chicago and is an advocate of local food. Mr. Kass will oversee the garden.
The plots will be in raised beds fertilized with White House compost, crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay, lime and green sand. Ladybugs and praying mantises will help control harmful bugs.
Can you imagine Cindy McCain doing this? No, me neither.
Barbie v. Barbara Bush; Best Week Ever: 3/3-3/10
Posted by zoboxrox in economy, health, human rights, international, malfunction, military, politics, powerful women, religion, tragedy on March 10th, 2009
1. Obama reverses Bush’s ridiculous Stem Cell funding restriction; I shudder to think of what they will say about us one hundred years from now.
“In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values. In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research — and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.” Obama, 03.09.08
I like to think of myself a realist, and the sad fact that people get sick and die should never change; c’est la vie, as they say. But considering the amount of unnecessary and unnatural spinal cord and brain injuries that have been inflicted on our young soldiers in the past five years, I’d say at this point we owe them at the very least the effort. 
According to Current, the move is more than just a single incident; it is an entire policy change in the way our Government interacts with our Scientists. In fact, what is so ironic about the partisan divide over the issue is, by passing the second half of the resolution, Obama is actually limiting the scope of government: this is, by definition, a conservative idea, which should appeal to the Libertarian views of true Republicans, but is lost upon the ridiculous argument of life at conception.
“Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident,” said Obama. “They result from painstaking and costly research — from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit — and from a government willing to support that work.”
The order is part of a broader declaration on science that will guide the administration’s policies on matters ranging from renewable energy to climate change.
“This order is an important step in advancing the cause of science in America. But let’s be clear: promoting science isn’t just about providing resources — it is also about protecting free and open inquiry,” said the president. “It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient — especially when it’s inconvenient.”
2. Speaking of medical miracles, Obama also began his health care summit this past week, despite the fact he currently lacks an HHS Secretary, Surgeon General, and Health Care Czar. This fact was overshadowed, however, by Ted Kennedy’s return to Washington (since his collapse at Obama’s inauguration in January) and another history book speech by our President.
Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want, and that no proposal for reform will be perfect. If that’s the measure, we will never get anything done.
But when it comes to addressing our health care challenge, we can no longer let the perfect be the enemy of the essential. And I don’t think anybody would argue that we are on a sustainable path when it comes to health care.
Finally, I want to be very clear, at the outset, that, while everybody has a right to take part in this discussion, nobody has the right to take it over and dominate.
The status quo is the one option that’s not on the table, and those who seek to block any reform at all, any reform at any costs, will not prevail this time around.
Meanwhile, Barbara Bush has a valve in her heart replaced with that of a pig… too easy…
3. Unemployment rate at 8.1%, 25 year high. The Dow continues to drop. People all over the world panic. I have no stocks, no job, and no equity, so my life has remained more or less the same, but apparently, this is bad news. 10% rate predicted by Spring 2010.
4. Obama begins his overhaul of the education System; No Child Left Behind finally behind us. 
We have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us. The time for finger-pointing is over. The time for holding ourselves accountable is here. The relative decline of American education is untenable for our economy, unsustainable for our democracy and unacceptable for our children, and we cannot afford to let it continue… I know there are some who believe we can only handle one challenge at a time. We don’t have the luxury of choosing between getting our economy moving now and rebuilding it over the long term.
5. Barbie turns 50. Mirrors all over the world shatter.
Blessed Art Thou Among Men
Posted by zoboxrox in economy, environment, malfunction, politics on December 24th, 2008
When someone up there likes you, things tend to fall into place. Such is the situation Barack Obama is currently enjoying. With 82% approval of his transition to power, he has the inverse popularity of Bush. Those who don’t like him are far enough to the left or right that they are more or less politically insignificant. And even as a Leftie, I must say, he really is doing well, making lots of good choices, having great people around him, but there’s something else going on here, and while I’m not spiritual or superstitious, even I have to wonder, is there someone up there on Obama’s side?
****
The President-elect recently unveiled his administration’s plans for job creation and economic growth in the near future, and they surprised some people by bringing the country’s infrastructure onto front stage, in what some are calling a 21st century New Deal. Now most people I think tend to complain about the condition of their roads, public schools, and our bridges are starting to look as old as they are, but unless you go to Norway or Japan, the poor quality of American infrastructure does not come across as an immediate crisis seeking national attention, compared with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economic recession, the healthcare crisis, etc., and there were a fair number of people asking “Why this?”
And then - BAM - we get a strong reminder as to why exactly this might be a good idea. If you live in suburban-D.C. Maryland then you are perhaps a weary driver today, as yesterday there’s a chance you experienced quite an unusual ride to work.
A massive water main break in Cabin John, Maryland, near the communities of Potomac and Bethesda, unleashed the flood during rush-hour Tuesday morning.
The water main, 66 inches in diameter, unleashed the wall of water just before 8 a.m. that, at its height, was four feet high and 60 to 70 feet wide, Montgomery County police said.
Or you live in Tennessee and had to move out of your home as a result of toxic sludge:
A wall holding back 80 acres of sludge from a coal plant in central Tennessee broke this week, spilling more than 500 million gallons of waste into the surrounding area.
Environmental Protection Agency officials are on the scene and expect the cleanup to to take four to six weeks.
The retention wall breached early Monday, sending the sludge downhill and damaging 15 homes. All the residents were evacuated, and three homes were deemed uninhabitable.
Or you live in Atlanta and are still shaky after a pedestrian bridge collapsed five days ago. Perhaps even you live in New Orleans and you remember when the levees broke. Maybe your children go to a crumbling school, you have no form of public transit in your town, you sit in traffic for four hours a day and spend more money on gas then you make in a days work. The best thing about rebuilding American infrastructure is that it is a populist approach to improving the daily lives of Americans, it will ultimately benefit everyone. How Obama is that?!
****
So watching the flood waters on CNN Breaking News Flash Drama Screen at my local coffee shop yesterday, I was once again forced to ask myself: Is it possible Obama really is blessed?
Secretary of Treasury = Worst Job Ever
Posted by zoboxrox in corporate america, economy, malfunction, politics on November 24th, 2008
This is an exaggeration. There are probably worse jobs, like cleaning Porta Potties or being Madonna’s Personal Assistant, but as far as high power, high responsibility Cabinet positions go, Secretary of Treasury is one that I would pass up if offered… you know, in hypothetical world.
The Treasury Secretary is the Cabinet position equivalent to the Finance Minister of foreign governments. He is the principle economic adviser to the President. Responsible for recommending policy on domestic and international financial dealings, as well as advising the President on the budget and taxes, the Secretary of Treasury is both very significant and fairly impotent. Most policy must also be written off by the Treasurer and the Director of National Economic Council is more or less equal in his adviser status (and actually closer in his physical proximity to the President, as his office is in the White House). As written in the TimesOnline:
What a strangely wretched thing it is to be US Treasury Secretary. You don’t really have much power to control policy: interest rates are set by the Federal Reserve, fiscal policy is often not much more than the outcome of horse trading between the Administration and Congress. If you’re not careful the job can at times be reduced to the repeated articulation of platitudes about currency markets.
Still, the Secretary of the Treasury serves as fifth in the Presidential Line of Succession and is considered the second most important Cabinet position behind that of State.
After years of septuagenarian Treasury Secretaries, Obama has gone and sprung for this spring chicken: Timothy Geithner, b 1961.
At 47 Geithner is bringing a fresh new — well, more like recycled and remodeled — look to what has become a position of wilted leadership. While it would be nearly impossible to do a worse job than the last two have done, there are some complications to the position that are innate. It is a job with a lot
of visibility but not that much control, and therefore a lot of blame without that much actual fault. In addition to the already grueling pressures of the job, is the fact that this incoming Secretary of Treasury will have to deal with the worst financial crisis in the last two generations.
Geithner will face intense scrutiny, as he comes from a long line of what the New York Times today described as Rubinistas. Robert E. Rubin was the Treasury Secretary under Clinton, until he resigned to become the first Director of the National Economic Council. He promoted balanced budgets and free trade and was a strong supporter of deregulation; in fact, it was this combination that helped to fuel the prosperity boom of the 90s for which he is often credited. Times have changed, however, and recently Rubin himself has stated that the “changing circumstances” call for a very different approach. And while Geithner is considered a protege of Rubin (as is Lawrence Summers, the incoming Director of the NEC and the idiot who thinks men are smarter than women), he has been considered “among the toughest on the need to re-regulate.”
So here’s to Timothy Geithner. Best of luck. Try not to be anything at all like these three guys:
1. Paul H O’Neill (b. 1935)
Served: January 2001 - December 2002
Of Bush’s three Secretaries of Treasury, Paul O’Neill was definitely the most capable, honest, and professional of his picks. Unfortunately he was also the first to go and served the shortest amount of time. O’Neill was a lifelong Republican advisor, serving in some capacity under Nixon, Ford, and Reagan. When George Herbert Walker Bush Sr. asked him to be his Treasury Secretary he passed up the offer and recommended Dick Cheney. In other words, this was not and outsider!
He was however opinionated, and when he disagreed he was vocal in his dissent. Critical of Bush’s tax cuts and the war in Iraq, he later referred to the administrations general policy as irresponsible, one-sided, prearranged, and politically determined. In his book, The Price of Loyalty, he goes so far as to state that the Iraq War was planned from the very first National Security meeting and that its designers were a group of aging Neo-Conservatives from previous administrations.
In his 2007 memoir, The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan refers to this fact:
My friend [O’Neill] soon found himself to be the odd man out; much to my disappointment, economic policy making in the Bush administration remained firmly in the hands of the White House staff.
In late 2002 O’Neill was forced to resign as it became clear he was not going to stand by as Bush & Co, destroyed America. So they went out and found someone who would and that is how we wound up with…
2. John Snow (b. 1939)
Served: February 2003 - May 2006
John Snow was a much more practical puppet for Bush (therefore Cheney). It was during Snow’s tenure as Treasury Secretary that the first signs of the financial ruin we are currently in, began to show. The seeds of Bush’s plan blossomed under Snow, as he seemed willing to back his Executive.
In 2004 the New York Times Printed this:
Like other secretaries in the Bush administration, Mr. Snow’s main job has been to promote policies - not make them. To the extent that this administration has engaged in making economic policies (to wit, “tax cuts above all” and “deficits don’t matter”), the policies have come from the president’s inner circle.
In 2005, when Bush started getting serious heat for his role in the down-spiraling economy, they printed this:
Treasury Secretary John Snow says that strong consumer spending indicates that people don’t feel as bad about the economy as they tell pollsters. He also suggests that part of the problem is that “less educated people have seen their incomes and wages grow more slowly.”
And in December of 2005, some funny guy found this quote:
[Snow]: the president’s legacy will be one of having significantly reduced the deficit in his time
Unfortunately for basically everyone in the world, Bush & Co and Snow were all wrong and the results of their efforts to privatize social security, re-design the tax codes, cut public spending, up defense spending are being suffered across our economic plane.
In 2006 Snow was forced out, like his predecessor, and a lot of the blame fell on him, and that is when you-know-who entered the picture:
3. Henry Paulson b. 1946
Served: May 2006 - present
Now I could write a lot on good old Hank, but fortunately for us someone else with a slightly more established reputation than myself, has gone and said it all for me.
His name is Steve Forbes.
Forbes magazine President and CEO Steve Forbes called Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson “the worst treasury secretary we’ve had in modern times”, citing, among other things, the government’s handling of the housing crisis.
In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Sunday, Forbes repeatedly called on the treasury secretary to be more straightforward
As I see it, Geithner has a pretty good chance of not sucking as much as these guys did.
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