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The $3 Trillion Folly

In his appearance today before the House Financial Services Committee, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the "economic situation has become distinctly less favorable" and he's planning to go right back to the office and start printing more money.¹ As for Mr Bush, who regularly keeps out of touch with reality, this isn't such a big deal. In fact, it's all good: Those dollars will just flow straight to the defense industry in Iraq.² Congress has agreed (or rather deigned) to spend the next few days bickering among themselves over this very issue.³

So now we're borrowing $343 million per day so that we can turn around and spend $338 million per day in Iraq. While economist Paul Krugman points at popping housing bubbles, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz instead points straight to Iraq, where "spending on Iraq was a hidden cause of the current credit crunch because the US central bank responded to the massive financial drain of the war by flooding the American economy with cheap credit."⁴ According to a new book by Stiglitz, the cost of the Iraq War is going to be a bank-depleting $3 trillion dollars. Never mind that the great sell-off of America is already under way.⁵ One gets the impression the terrorists have won.

1.  "Bernanke: Fed ready to act to boost economy," AP/MSNBC, February 27, 2008.
2.  "Bush Dismisses Iraq Recession: The War Has 'Nothing To Do With The Economy'," Think Progress, February 18, 2008.
3.  "Senate Republicans agree to Iraq debate," CNN, February 26, 2008.
4.  "Iraq war 'caused slowdown in the US'," The Australian, February 28, 2008.
5.  "Miami condos are 'for sale' for foreign buyers," Reuters, February 20, 2008.

No Nadir for Nader in 2008

Tim Russert kept trying to cast Ralph Nader as a spoiler in his new 2008 presidential bid, announced this morning on NBC's Meet the Press, but Nader wasn't falling for it and continued to press the issue, one of several—let Americans take back ownership of the nation's election process.

Nader is still an amazing figure and a brilliant thinker/speaker.¹ There shouldn't be any question as to his "electability." His interactive website, votenader.org, is back up and running.

1.  But apparently not dazzling enough to stop "Meet the Press" from immediately going back to the same old blather: silly bickering between Obama and Clinton, McCain's love for lobbyists, etc., as if nothing has changed, as if nothing ever will change on America's corporate-owned media.