2008-12-05 22:53:03.341736+00 by ebradway 6 comments
In a statement from the South Lawn of the White House, Bush said, "Today's job data reflects the fact that our economy is in a recession. This is in large part because of severe problems in our housing, credit and financial markets."
Man this guy is clueless... This was the first time Bush admitted that the US economy is in recession.
[ related topics: Politics Economics ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2008-12-06 18:15:57.452903+00 by: mvandewettering
It's not like his father was really very quick to admit that the country was in an economic recession (albeit it was a milder one) during his presidency. Still, the nearly eight percent unemployment we saw back in 1992 may seem mild before this is all over.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-12-06 23:05:08.328507+00 by: ebradway
"You don't have to have a broken arm to be sympathetic to one who does." The famous words that probably cost Bush Sr. the 1992 election.
And now George Jr. is telling Congress to use the $25B loan program for renewable energy vehicles towards the bailout of the big three. That's about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. We finally decided to start funding new technologies and we are going to use that funding to bailout the old, failing technologies?
#Comment Re: made: 2008-12-07 07:26:31.872719+00 by: meuon
I think a few bankruptcies will refocus the auto industry, get rid of the old guard, and clean out some liabilities. What we will end up with, eventually, is a better auto industry. But it'll be a painful expensive process either way.
It just seems we are no longer a capitalist society, rewarding the good and allowing the bad to die off, we have put the bad on life support, setting precedents for others, and forcing taxpayers to carry the burden which will drag us all down.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-12-07 15:14:42.282299+00 by: andylyke
We ceased being a free capitalist society when some entities became "too big to fail". Our answer to this obvious dilemma is to consolidate the remainders into yet bigger entities. Wouldn't it be nice if little companies like Tesla could compete on a level field?
We have socialism for the wealthy, serfdom for the rest.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-12-07 16:38:50.86256+00 by: Larry Burton
I've heard it argued that no one would buy a car from a company in bankruptcy. Since I've never owned a new car and few of the used ones I've bought have had much warranty left on them my opinion on this probably is moot but I really don't see a problem with this. I bought tickets on Delta several weeks in advance while they were in bankruptcy.
I would love to see the big three dissolve into their divisions. I think it would be cool for "body by Fischer" to actually mean something and that there would actually be a difference between buying a Ford or a Mercury.
Oldsmobile and Plymouth are no more. Neither is Studebaker or Rambler. Let's bump up the number of car companies we have and have them smaller and capable of providing their solutions for our current and future driving needs so maybe then they will have the competitive advantage that Toyota had when it first hit the US market. If one of them fails then it will just make more room for companies like Tesla to compete in the market.
#Comment Re: made: 2008-12-07 16:42:05.57531+00 by: Larry Burton
Actually, if you want small upstart car companies to be able to compete in our market allowing modeling of crash tests rather than actually wrecking the cars to serve in proving roadworthyness and safety of a design would go a long ways toward allowing this to happen.