Nonsense. The current downturn has been fueled by three things, none of which Bush or his tax policies or Iraq spending has anything to do with. The collapse of grotesquely inflated housing prices and the ensuing loss of capital for additional secured loans, the default of already very risky loans on houses the buyers could never have afforded in any economy, and the explosion of commidity prices further stifling consumer spending.
Please go and get yourself more educated on economics before you go and call anything anyone says "nonsense".
The housing problem, as far as the LENDING end is concerned, is the fault of the Fed and the banks. On the other end, it can also be attributed to the borrowers for not being more responsible when taking a mortgage. Many of those borrowers could have afforded the mortgage at the time of signing, but there are a few things which affected their abilities later on. One, the ARM's. They were very risky mortgages that obviously most people who are defaulting on didn't put NEARLY the amount of thought into that they should have. But then, most of those people were also pretty damn clueless as to how much runaway inflation was actually going to ensue, and it's not like our government or media is properly informing us on that.
The next problem lies in what you mentioned, the commodities prices skyrocketing, and STILL climbing. How you can say that can't be attributed to congress or the president is beyond me. It's almost as if you are saying that just to say it, hoping it's true.
Congress' spending has been on the brink of probably the most irresponsible in history in the last 8 years. The main difference between the dot-com bubble, and this housing bubble, is that we didn't see the runaway inflation back then, that we are seeing now. The republican-controlled congress was MUCH more fiscally responsible then, as fiscal conservatism still had it's place in politics. Consumers back then had an easier time purchasing what they needed most. I personally didn't feel the dot-com recession NEARLY as bad as I'm feeling this one. Congress' fiscal irresponsibility is what has devalued our Dollar to it's lowest point ever, and caused us this incredible inflation rate that we're in. All one need do is look at the price of gold. It's pretty telling, that the Fed would stop publishing their M3 data back in 2006, right about the time they STARTED their runaway money "creation".
They print the money that congress demands for spending. Or, we borrow more money from foreign nations, which in turn has put us into a record amount of debt internationally. Countries are losing faith in the Dollar, and that is largely attributed to Congress, Bush, and the Fed, pretty much equally.
About the only power any President has on the economy is who he appoints as Fed Chariman.
This is about as absurd an economic statement as you could make. The president doesn't have to sign any bill that is fiscally irresponsible. The fact that he has signed NUMEROUS spending bills, and has caused us a record budget deficit during one of the worst times to even be
allowing one, speaks to the power he DOES have on the economy.
The out of control printing, borrowing, and spending that he has endorsed since being in office has DIRECTLY affected the value of our Dollar.
Feel free to argue that if you wish, but you'll be disagreeing with just about everyone who knows even BASIC macroeconomics.
