Friday, November 09, 2007

Bush League Economics

It's worth reading Joseph Stiglitz's whole piece 'The Economic Consequences of Mr Bush' in Vanity Fair this month or online here. Even for non-economists it's a devastating indictment of the worst record of reckless mismanagement in Presidential history.

It's also worth remembering that, although conservatives are scurrying away from his pestilent shadow and there's lots of pronouncements about how Bush is a special case who doesn't represent real conservatism - this is simply not true.

George W. Bush simply took political conservatism and economic neo-liberalism to their illogical extremes. The same pattern of authoritarianism, abandonment of the social contact and wealth distribution upwards can be found in mainstream conservatism and liberalism these days - just at a slower more sub-rosa scale.

The crumbling infrastructure, devastated middle-class and shredded social contract of America today lie at the end of the roads both Stephen Harper and Stéphane Dion want to take us down - paternalistic so-called 'anti-poverty' plans notwithstanding.

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