(2) Free Trade: NAFTA, CAFTA and GATT - while the first was signed by Bill Clinton, these are generally Republican Union busting Bills, and they have sent our good middle class manufacturing jobs first to Mexico and now to China, and our service job India. They also lead to lower employment, lower wages, lower taxes, lower FICA savings, and in general to larger deficits and national and state debts.
(3) Deregulation:
(A) The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1999) replaced the Glass Steagall Act (1933) an ill-advised piece of legislation produced by three Republicans, albeit signed by Bill Clinton. These led to the "too Big to Fail" entities - commercial banks-cum-investments banks-cum- Insurance cos. (The very cause of the 1929 market crash, and ensuing Great depression, and the 2008 bank failures)
(B) Commodity Futures Modernization Act (Dec. 2000) . The Phil Gramm deregulation of Derivatives and Credit Default Swaps. This was a 264 piece of legislation snuck into an Omnibus Bill, while the nation was distracted by Bush v. Gore, and Clinton was distracted by Marc Rich scandal. As, we also well know, nobody in Congress reads these 1,000 page bills. This led to the lack of regulation of the very exotic securities that brought the 'too big to fail" entities to the brink of disaster.
(C) Responsible Lending Act of 2004: Phil Gramm, now at a cushy post at UBS Bank, lobbied his republican friends in Congress, to pass a pro business measure: while it was billed as an anti-predatory measure (Orwellian speak), but in effect, it really protected the Loan Sharks, and not the Consumer by replacing stricter State standards with a weaker Federal Law.
One ideology (Republican/ Conservatives) runs through these laws, which led to the mayhem of 2008!
These along with the Republicans penchant for wars and larger unpaid for Defense Budgets have ballooned our annual deficits, national debt, and brought us to our knees with the Great Recession of 2008-2009!!!
Yet, the American people are so foolish, their memories so short and so impatient they will probably vote in Republicans in the 2010 election, rather than allowing Democrats time to clean up the mess that the Republicans left behind.
Ø Why Obama had to react:
Bush's Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, had warned Bush, and the Congress on Oct. 17-20 that if they did not pass TARP that the Country would fall into another great Depression, and we would have a 25% unemployment rate. Bush acted as did the democrats in Congress, but the Republicans held back, and we had a 700 point drop in the DJIA, when the Bill failed due to Republican intransigence. This started the market decline in a faster rate, until its turn around on March 9, 2009, after Obama took office. Similarly, not passing TARP II would have caused a Great Depression. As also letting he backbone of our remaining manufacturing base the auto Industry have an untimely demise, was not an option, so Obama had to bail them out. What about the Stimulus: Was it necessary?
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
5
4
4
