The Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush

The next president will have to deal with yet another crippling legacy of George W. Bush: the economy. A Nobel laureate, Joseph E. Stiglitz, sees a generation-long struggle to recoup.

by Joseph E. Stiglitz December 2007

" ... Remember the Surplus?

The world was a very different place, economically speaking, when George W. Bush took office, in January 2001. During the Roaring 90s, many had believed that the Internet would transform everything. Productivity gains, which had averaged about 1.5 percent a year from the early 1970s through the early 90s, now approached 3 percent. During Bill Clinton’s second term, gains in manufacturing productivity sometimes even surpassed 6 percent. The Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, spoke of a New Economy marked by continued productivity gains as the Internet buried the old ways of doing business. Others went so far as to predict an end to the business cycle. Greenspan worried aloud about how he’d ever be able to manage monetary policy once the nation’s debt was fully paid off.

This tremendous confidence took the Dow Jones index higher and higher. The rich did well, but so did the not-so-rich and even the downright poor. The Clinton years were not an economic Nirvana; as chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers during part of this time, I’m all too aware of mistakes and lost opportunities. The global-trade agreements we pushed through were often unfair to developing countries. We should have invested more in infrastructure, tightened regulation of the securities markets, and taken additional steps to promote energy conservation. We fell short because of politics and lack of money—and also, frankly, because special interests sometimes shaped the agenda more than they should have. But these boom years were the first time since Jimmy Carter that the deficit was under control. And they were the first time since the 1970s that incomes at the bottom grew faster than those at the top—a benchmark worth celebrating.

By the time George W. Bush was sworn in, parts of this bright picture had begun to dim. The tech boom was over. The nasdaq fell 15 percent in the single month of April 2000, and no one knew for sure what effect the collapse of the Internet bubble would have on the real economy. It was a moment ripe for Keynesian economics, a time to prime the pump by spending more money on education, technology, and infrastructure—all of which America desperately needed, and still does, but which the Clinton administration had postponed in its relentless drive to eliminate the deficit. Bill Clinton had left President Bush in an ideal position to pursue such policies. Remember the presidential debates in 2000 between Al Gore and George Bush, and how the two men argued over how to spend America’s anticipated $2.2 trillion budget surplus? The country could well have afforded to ramp up domestic investment in key areas. In fact, doing so would have staved off recession in the short run while spurring growth in the long run.

But the Bush administration had its own ideas. The first major economic initiative pursued by the president was a massive tax cut for the rich, enacted in June of 2001. Those with incomes over a million got a tax cut of $18,000—more than 30 times larger than the cut received by the average American. The inequities were compounded by a second tax cut, in 2003, this one skewed even more heavily toward the rich. Together these tax cuts, when fully implemented and if made permanent, mean that in 2012 the average reduction for an American in the bottom 20 percent will be a scant $45, while those with incomes of more than $1 million will see their tax bills reduced by an average of $162,000.

The administration crows that the economy grew—by some 16 percent—during its first six years, but the growth helped mainly people who had no need of any help, and failed to help those who need plenty. A rising tide lifted all yachts. Inequality is now widening in America, and at a rate not seen in three-quarters of a century. A young male in his 30s today has an income, adjusted for inflation, that is 12 percent less than what his father was making 30 years ago. Some 5.3 million more Americans are living in poverty now than were living in poverty when Bush became president. America’s class structure may not have arrived there yet, but it’s heading in the direction of Brazil’s and Mexico’s.

The Bankruptcy Boom

In breathtaking disregard for the most basic rules of fiscal propriety, the administration continued to cut taxes even as it undertook expensive new spending programs and embarked on a financially ruinous “war of choice” in Iraq. A budget surplus of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product (G.D.P.), which greeted Bush as he took office, turned into a deficit of 3.6 percent in the space of four years. The United States had not experienced a turnaround of this magnitude since the global crisis of World War II. ... "

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"the crime of the century"

The People vs. the Profiteers

" ... Americans working in Iraq for Halliburton spin-off KBR have been outraged by the massive fraud they saw there. Dozens are suing the giant military contractor, on the taxpayers' behalf. Whose side is the Justice Department on?

[ ... ]

 

He can be forgiven a little frivolity. In his functional home-office in Orlando, and at the Beltway headquarters of his law firm, Grayson & Kubli, Grayson spends most of his days and many of his evenings on a lonely legal campaign to redress colossal frauds against American taxpayers by private contractors operating in Iraq. He calls it "the crime of the century."

His obvious adversaries are the contracting corporations themselves—especially Halliburton, the giant oil-services conglomerate where Vice President Dick Cheney spent the latter half of the 1990s as C.E.O., and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, now known simply as KBR. But he says his efforts to take on those organizations have earned him another enemy: the United States Department of Justice. ... "

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'Experts say climate change threatens national security'

" ... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Climate change could end globalization by 2040 as nations look inward to conserve scarce resources and conflicts flare when refugees flee rising seas and drought, national security experts warned on Monday.

Scarcity could dictate the terms of international relations, according to Leon Fuerth of George Washington University, one of the report's authors.

Global cooperation based on a resource-rich world could give way to a regime where vital commodities are scarce, Fuerth said at a forum to release "The Age of Consequences."

"Some of the consequences could essentially involve the end of globalization as we have known it ... as different parts of the Earth contract upon themselves in order to try to conserve what they need to survive," said Fuerth, who was national security adviser to former Vice President Al Gore.

Rich countries could "go through a 30-year process of kicking people away from the lifeboat" as the world's poorest face the worst environmental consequences, which he said would be "extremely debilitating in moral terms." ... "

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Psychologists Against Torture

" ... It is with distress, and indeed shame, that we psychologists note that the American Psychological Association [APA] alone among the national health professional associations has failed to take an unequivocal stand prohibiting participation of its members in potentially abusive interrogations. As was evident in its testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the APA explicitly allows members to participate in the infliction of harm, as long as that harm does not exceed a certain threshold – causing “significant pain or distress” or of being “lasting”. This policy, sadly, echoes the word-parsing of the Bush Administration’s “torture memos” and other official policies and documents justifying the administration’s harsh interrogation strategies. Word-parsing may have a political rationale, but it is antithetical to professional ethics in that it indicates an intent to deceive or obscure. When this is the intent with regard to an issue as significant as torture, it brings into question the profession's, and the nation's, genuine commitment to human rights.

Like psychologists in any institutional setting, military or CIA psychologists, asked to participate in interrogations, need clear ethical guidance. These psychologists, in the heat of high-profile operations, cannot be expected to successfully parse words as to whether the pain or distress is sufficient to meet the APA’s standard for being “significant.” Nor can these psychologists be expected to predict whether a particular technique, used perhaps in combination with other techniques, will cause “lasting harm.” Thus, the APA policy leaves military and intelligence psychologists at risk of committing unethical and perhaps illegal actions and fails to protect members who are military and intelligence psychologists.

Ambiguities in the roles of psychologists also threaten the abilities of military and intelligence-agency psychologists to perform their primary health-promoting activities. To the extent that uncertainty exists around the roles of psychologists and whether or not psychologists’ primary responsibility is to promote health, the trust upon which all psychological and medical treatment depends will be severely damaged. As a result, potential patients may become reluctant to seek needed psychological care. At a time when many thousands of our soldiers are suffering severe psychological trauma, often requiring intensive psychological treatment, this loss of trust can hardly be risked.

We are also deeply concerned that the 2007 Resolution by APA Council makes it ethical practice for psychologists to participate in the violation of international human rights standards. In particular, the resolution allows psychologists to practice and support interrogations in sites that operate outside the protections offered by the Geneva Conventions and other international human rights instruments such as the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [CAT]. As the illegal, indefinite detention of people at these sites itself constitutes a violation of international law and human rights standards, psychologists' operational activities at these sites only legitimates these human rights violations.

Recommendations

We therefore ask Congress and this committee to take the following steps to clarify the status of psychologists in the military and intelligence agencies:

1. Conduct a thorough investigation of the role of psychologists, and of psychological knowledge and expertise, in the abusive interrogations carried out by this Administration. This investigation should clarify for the public the roles of SERE psychologists and SERE-based techniques in these interrogations. It should clarify the processes whereby SERE and other psychological knowledge and techniques were implemented at the CIA’s “black sites” and in military detention facilities at Guantanamo, and in Iraq and Afghanistan. This investigation should clarify the degree to which psychologists helped turn these abusive techniques into standard operating procedures at these facilities. It should also clarify the extent to which psychologists and psychological knowledge and expertise are currently being utilized in support of the CIA’s “enhanced interrogations” program. Further, clarification is needed as to whether psychologists have ever participated in the “medical supervision” of interrogations at Guantanamo or of the “enhanced interrogations” that Director McConnell described.

2. Clarify that the infliction of harm of any degree is never an appropriate role for psychologists, their trainees and supervisees, or any other health professionals in national security contexts. Our military and intelligence colleagues need the warrant of Congressional mandate to identify and refrain from unethical participation in abusive or coercive interrogation practices.

3. Ban the use of enhanced interrogation techniques going beyond those authorized by the Army Field Manual, which itself needs revision, at any U.S. detention facility, whether run by the military, CIA, or any other government or private agency.

4. We would also like to add our voice to those urging Congress to act immediately to restore habeas corpus and other basic human rights, as defined in the Geneva Conventions, the UN CAT and other relevant international instruments, to all those sought or detained by the U.S. as “enemy combatants.” The CIA’s secret detention and rendition practices and CIA-run prisons are of particular concern. We urge Congress to take action speeding the closure of Guantánamo Bay, CIA-run prisons, and other secretive detention sites; Prisoners held at these sites should be transferred to sites in the U.S. that transparently observe due process & other international human rights standards & laws. Concomitantly, Congress should ban the practice of extraordinary rendition of detainees to countries documented by the State Department to use torture or other abusive interrogation techniques. Respect for human rights is a fundamental aspect of what makes us a civilized society.

We thank you for this opportunity to assist your vital efforts to rectify this sad chapter in our nation’s history.

Institutional Signers: ... "

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'why women, in particular, need to resist the "buy" buttons'

Women Should Buy Into Holiday Shopping Boycott

9 Nov 2007

By Susan Feiner
WeNews correspondent

The biggest retail day of the year hovers at the end of this month. Susan Feiner flags the reasons why women, in particular, need to resist the "buy" buttons that advertisers are trying to push and to join a consuming boycott.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Female shoppers, beware.

It's November and that means that Black Friday--the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year--is lurking at the end of the month, raising the risk of a post-holiday debt hangover.

Twenty-three percent of Americans will not pay off their holiday debt until March or later, equaling $14.6 billion in interest-accruing debt, according to a Consumer Reports 2006 survey. Over one-quarter of Americans use credit cards most often when holiday shopping, contributing to the $63.6 billion charged on credit cards throughout the shopping season.

Since as much as 75 percent of retailers' profits accrue during the holiday season, Black Friday represents the point in time when retailers' account books shift from red (debt) to black (profit).

But black fades into red when we switch our standpoint to the consumer's perspective.

The money flowing into cash registers accentuates the red tide of consumer debt, which is especially toxic for women, whose bankruptcy filings have risen ninefold in the past 20 years, according to research published in the Brooklyn Law Review.

Women Aren't Profligate

It's not that women are profligate in their spending, at the holidays or otherwise.

Yes, Women's Wear Daily may tell us that "yuletide bling" appeals to multiple generations of women and that "jewel-encrusted bras, camisoles embellished with feathers and silky crotch-less panties sold like hot cakes last year."

This could tempt you to think that women have become downright hysterical in their spending. But more methodical research tells us that when it comes to overspending our society has achieved a rare gender balance; both sexes do it to pretty much to the same extent.

Instead, overspending during the holidays is a women's issue in particular for a very simple reason: we can afford it less. That's because we continue to earn less--75 cents to the dollar on average--and we are also less likely to have other financial safeguards such as jobs with good health care and pension benefits.

Much more often than men, women are using consumer credit to pay for life's necessities.

Retailers Worried

Retailers, meanwhile, are clearly worried that spending will not match the double-digit sales gains of the last several seasons, which gets us to the real warning of the story.

In 2006 companies spent a staggering $209.74 billion on advertising. The results of all that money are, in their immensity, difficult if not impossible to either avoid or ignore.

Advertisers target women for a simple reason: We do about 85 percent of all consumer spending. The constant buzz of advertising is, as the economist John Kenneth Galbraith once put it, "relentless propaganda on behalf of goods."

The array of available goods grows daily, and so inevitably does the list of what we know we don't have. This induces a perpetual state of wanting, and millions of us heed the siren call of malls, department stores, upscale boutiques, downscale discounters and everything in between.

It's all particularly dangerous for women who head households. Saving a portion of your earnings is an essential element of long-term financial security, but a recent report in the Survey of Consumer Finances, says 53 percent of female household heads spend all or more than all of their incomes.

The dominant media doesn't want to focus on the systemic reasons for women's financial problems. Instead they focus, as usual, on self-improvement, running endless how-to articles about ending impulse spending, making a list and sticking to it, cutting back on your make-up routine, finding a less expensive hair salon, and don't forget the $64,000 question: Do your finances need a makeover?

Social Policy Void

This individualist focus misses a deeper point: there is no social policy working to protect people from the aggressive influence of marketing; that not enough is being done to make sure women have more workplace equity.

Women as individuals and consumers should, of course, develop habits that get them off the consumer escalator. Read a book, take a walk, talk to a friend instead of reaching for that credit card. Sure.

But there's more to the story than any one woman's individual behavior.

For one thing, there's recent political history. Over the past 25 years, kicked off by the massive tax cuts of the Reagan era, income in the United States has been distributed less and less equally. That has created a huge gulf between the very rich, the posh well-to-do, and the rest of us.

Not only ads, but entertainment programming such as "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" make people earning $35,000 a year desire the ways and means of those earning $135,000. Economist and social commentator Juliet Schor describes the new consumerism as a cycle of "see, want, borrow, buy."

So when we think about consumerism as part of social policy--rather than a simple set of "free" individual choices--it becomes obvious that our national fascination with "more" is being driven by policies designed to reduce public attention to the values that sustain us as a community.

As citizens we value parks, clean energy, recreation, housing, and the environment. But the share of federal spending devoted to these public goods has been declining since the beginning of the conservative attack on government in 1981 when these were 11 percent of the federal budget. Spending in these areas is now a mere 8.6 percent of federal spending.

Households strapped to make monthly home, car and credit card payments are not likely to look fondly on spending to enhance community life. Funding for health care, parks, public recreation, elder care, child care, transportation and education become less palatable.

So with that in mind, maybe the best approach to the day after Thanksgiving this year--rather than rushing around the mall--is to join anti-consumer, pro-environment activists in Buy Nothing Day.

After all it's a political campaign season. With all the time we save by not shopping we can start looking over the candidates. Who's talking about women's pay and benefits disparities? Who's talking about health care, park, public recreation, child care, transportation, education?

Susan Feiner is professor of women's studies and economics at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

For more information:

Adbusters, Buy Nothing Day:
http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/

"Debt-Conscious Women Pay Cash for Holidays":
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2555/

"Tips and Resources on Holiday Spending":
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2553/

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FAS: Richard Barlow, Nuclear Weapons and Pakistan

The declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan has focused new concern
on the status of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.  It may also bring renewed
attention to the case of Richard Barlow, the former intelligence officer
who attempted to warn Congress two decades ago about Pakistan's
clandestine acquisition of U.S. nuclear technology and who was punished
for his trouble.

In a classic whistleblower tale, Mr. Barlow's security clearances were
suspended, the state secrets privilege was invoked, and he was
personally vilified after he attempted to notify Congress of
irregularities and illegalities in Pakistan's U.S. acquisitions
program.  Yet his allegations about Pakistani export control violations
and official attempts to conceal those violations were ultimately
corroborated.

A summary account of Mr. Barlow's actions and experiences was presented
in one of two pending amendments introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
last summer to provide belated compensation for his losses.  See:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2007/barlow.html

Mr. Barlow's story, and much else about the clandestine development of
the Pakistani nuclear weapons program, is presented in a new book
called "Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in
Nuclear Weapons" by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark (Walker &
Company, 2007):

     http://www.walkerbooks.com/books/catalog.php?key=690

The Congressional Research Service examined "Pakistan's Political
Crisis and State of Emergency" in a new report dated November 6, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34240.pdf

See also "Pakistan-U.S. Relations," updated October 18, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33498.pdf

And "Direct Overt U.S. Aid to Pakistan, FY2001-FY2008," November 8,
2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/pakaid.pdf

 

Source: SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2007, Issue No. 112
November 8, 2007

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

markets and the dollar dilemma

" ... The most immediate trigger for the sell-off in the dollar, traders said, was a jarring signal that suggested China might shift some of its enormous hoard of foreign currency reserves — worth more than $1.4 trillion, primarily in dollars and dollar-denominated assets — into other currencies to get a better return on its money.

“We will favor stronger currencies over weaker ones, and will readjust accordingly,” Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress told a conference in Beijing on Wednesday. A Chinese central bank vice director, Xu Jian, said the dollar was “losing its status as the world currency,” according to Bloomberg News.

Mr. Cheng later told reporters he was not saying China would buy more euros and dump dollars. But as markets opened across Europe, those words echoed as an invitation to sell the American currency.
The dollar fell to its lowest level against the Canadian dollar since 1950, the British pound since 1981, and the Swiss franc since 1995. The euro rose to a new record, $1.4729, before retreating. ... "

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NYT: 'Markets and Dollar Sink as Slowdown Worry Increases'
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM and PETER S. GOODMAN
8 Nov 2007

What do Freemasonry and Islam have in common?

Freemasonry (Moslem Sons) and Islam: What do they Share?

by Fahim A. Knight

INTRODUCTION

The topic of Freemasonry is a vast and complex subject, it encroaches on the history and culture of every past, present society and undoubtedly it will even impact future civilizations to come. One could spend an entire life time researching and delving into the inner mysteries, symbolism and rituals of this ancient order; moreover, and never exhaust the traveling path of constantly acquiring wisdom, knowledge and enlightenment that Freemasonry seems to lead the serious minded scholar and researchers toward.

Most non-Masons whom have engaged me in conversation, relative to Masonry seemed overly infatuated with this so-called idea of Masonry being a "covert brotherhood" that operates behind a cloak of secrecy and communicate in a language of symbolism that is un-discernible to the uninitiated.

However, there is a false contention that Masons wield a lot of power and influence throughout society, in which some will argue for the worst or betterment of humanity, it depends on one's perspective of this controversial fraternal brotherhood.

Freemasonry in modern terms had its inception in Europe from local trade Guilds that functioned as Operative Masons in the early 1700's, but Speculative Masonry can be traced back to Ancient Egypt (Kemit) where spiritual schools of thought were developed that evolved around understanding the mysteries of Deity and enhancing moral principles.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN IN KEMET (EGYPT)

The esteemed scholar and researcher Dr. George G.M. James in his monumental book titled, "Stolen Legacy" that was written in 1954, wrote about the Egyptian Mystery Schools, which he maintained that a complex system of neophyte initiations were developed and worked in Kemet (Egypt).

But more importantly, this sophisticated system of learning was of an African origin and not indigenous to Greece and Rome as traditional Eurocentric scholars have falsely maintained, but Plato, Aristotle and Socrates sat directly or indirectly, at the foot of African Sages who inspired them to illuminate Europe.

This small article is offered as a challenge to Prince Hall Masons from the Blue Lodge, concordant bodies, appendant adoptive bodies and auxiliary bodies to began to research, write, debate, document, etc., Masonic philosophy and stop relying on other scholars to interpret this ancient craft for them. Many believe the beauty in Masonry lies in one's ability to work and recite ritual, but what good has this, if we have very little understanding of truly why the Worshipful Master sits in the East, the Senior Warden in the West and Junior Warden in the South. We then only have symbol without real substance.

Many have never heard of Heru, Isis, Aset and the countless myths of resurrection fables that existed long before Jesus Christ and the Hiram Abiff mythical resurrection advents ...

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