The R-Word
The R-Word, of course, is recession. Greenspan raised this in a non-public address this week--like the man can say the R-word and it not get out! Today on The McLaughlin Group McLaughlin's prediction was that the U.S. economy would be in recession in November 2008. He then asked whether that helps Hillary.
The correct answer is that it helps B.O., sir.
Btw, I was talking to a co-blogger, and we agreed that, were the next election to take place either during or just after an economic slowdown--not sure it has to be a "technical" recession, so long as it is perceived as a downturn--and with 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq . . . that the GOP should stop worrying about the White House and start worrying about Congress. Also, we speculated how low Bush's numbers could dip.
[Not hoping for a recession, not that that needs to be said. Can't afford it, personally, in "full disclosure." Can't really afford another sell-off on Wall Street, really.]
posted by Number Three @ 9:00 PM
1 Comments:
Our household just happened to have a discussion about the R-word at the dinner table tonight too. What I have to wonder is whether Bush has also managed, like every other goverment agency, to place his political hacks in all the positions that spin out the economic numbers? Everything else in this administration is about managing perceptions rather than reality, so why should the economy be any different? Or in other words, I wonder if our economic figures are really worse than we've been lead to believe -- the Republican plutocratic base (which happens to control most of the business publications) mainly cares about keeping taxes low, so they may have been willing to look the other way and let Bush get away with this.
At any rate, given our bloated deficit, our trade imbalance and the war in Iraq, I am inclined to believe that if we have another recession, this time around it's going to be deeper and longer than the one in 2001-02. I'm not sure which Democrat a recesssion would help more (actually I can't see a recession helping one Democrat more than another -- during the primaries could the Dems be so stupid as to blame a recession on each other??), but I think it safe to say that a recession would definitely help the Democratic nominee and hurt Republicans across the board. Of course you never know; somehow the rightwing nut press will try to find a way to pin a recession on the new Democratic Congress.
Post a Comment
<< Home