2010-11-14, 06:12 PM
Hazzy Wrote:He turned a record surplus into a deficit. How the hell did he "not do bad"?
Multiple economies and therefore governments were surfing the dotcom bubble. Then that bubble burst.
Greenspan pulled the interest rates down to offset the economic effects of the bubble bursting. Then the 9/11 disaster spun the economy further down. Engaging two unnecessary wars didn't help either. Greenspan's terrible money policy helped the country hit a deficit much faster than it should have.
Everything contributed to the mortgage crisis, which led to the Wall Street crisis, which leaves us at the economic ruin we've dealt with these past few years.
It wasn't just Bush. That budget surplus would have easily been wiped out even if Clinton had a 3rd term and kept his ENTIRE policy the same. Yes, Clinton was constantly pressured to spend, and held his ground regardless, leading to surpluses. But in hindsight, that could very well have been a mistake.
Bush inherited a $150 billion surplus, of which not a penny was spent by Clinton to proactively offset the impending tech bubble burst. This is something not even Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government will admit. Of course, Bush simply cut taxes hoping to ride that surplus for as long as possible, which was just as bad a mistake as Clinton's.
It is no surprise why the Bush era cost 11.5 trillion dollars: Bush messed up, Congress messed up for letting 2 wars happen, the then Federal Reserve messed up, and people got greedy with speculation and jumping into mortgages they knew they couldn't afford, which helped derivatives markets get greedy as well.