August 02, 2004

A Response to Kerry's Economy Rhetoric

I can't believe it took me this long to connect the dots. You know how the Kerry campaign keeps harping on the job loss figures and the bad economy during the Bush presidency? Well, something Dr. Jeff Cornwall at The Entrepreneurial Mind wrote in his post for today's Carnival of the Capitalists sparks a response to that rhetoric. Cornwall's post is about how a businessman should prepare for a future terrorist attack. His last point starts this way:

Critically important is for all of us to look beyond any single event. After 9/11 we suffered economically in part because there was a collective "hunkering down" due to the shock of what had happened and the complete uncertainty of what was yet to come.

So, not only has the economy had to face the high-level corporate corruption (a la Enron) that came to a head in Bush's presidency, but we also suffered the 9/11 attacks. Even worse than the physical damage to the economy from that attack (to the World Trade Center) was the psychological damage: For example, people were afraid to fly, damaging the tourism and airline industries. More importantly, since we didn't have any idea of if or when we'd be attacked again, businesses were afraid to expand. And so on.

Our economic woes are not caused by incompetency at the presidential level; they're caused by two economic disasters that struck at the same time, and we're doing pretty well considering.

Posted by Blog Jones at August 2, 2004 05:12 PM | Category: Politics

Comments

Well, yeah, it's true our current economic woes were caused by terrorism, greed, and avarice and not by the president's incompetency. And, yes, we're doing okay on business recovery, although many of those who used to work for businesses haven't seen much yet. But the president has done nothing innovative to help raise the economy from its doldrums quickly, and he's done many heavy-handed things in the name of anti-terrorism that have helped keep the psychological dampers on businesses' and people's economic activity. There is no one or two things I can point to and say, "If the president had not done these, we would be in better economic shape." But his decisions both home and abroad seem never to work out as advertised, no matter how often he says that he never set the expectations that we all know he did. This is my real complaint about this president: nothing works as advertised, complaints are ignored, and mistakes are not acknowledged. I don't know that a new president will have the innovative ideas needed for quick recoveries at home and abroad, but I'm certainly willing to see if he has.

Posted by: John Eakins at August 6, 2004 08:41 AM

::points to the president's tax cuts:: That's one.

And I don't exactly blame them for being slow to acknowledge their mistakes, for two reasons. First, the president probably wants to avoid having Kerry campaign ads with Bush saying "I was wrong about ____." Secondly, sometimes he turns out to be right. (see also: Nigerian Yellowcake)

Posted by: Blog Jones at August 6, 2004 09:44 AM
Due to the proliferation of comment spam, I've had to close comments on this entry. Sorry. Spammers ruin it for everybody. If you really, really want to add a comment to this entry, email me.