"D.B." wrote in message
t...

Ed Huntress wrote:
None of which says that the recession was Bush's fault *or* Clinton's
fault.
Presidents don't have a lot to do with recessions. As I said earlier,
this
last recession was a normal downswing of the business cycle. The
silliness
started when someone said five or six years ago that business cycles
were a
thing of the past. Obviously, they're not.

Ed Huntress



It's only fair to blame Bush. If the economy were booming,
the same Bush sycophants that are crying foul Bush when is
blamed for the poor economy would be praising him for the
booming economy.

I'm sure you're right about that, Dick, but it doesn't help understanding to
toss out blame. What happened to our economy during the '90s was
unpredictable and unprecedented. We got a few things right that we'd never
done right before (such as controlling money supply to control inflation and
wage pressures), and a few things happened because of unpredicted
technological developments (IT-based productivity improvements), and the
unknowns that resulted were largely uncontrollable -- because no one knew
how to control them. So, the economy overheated and it led to a bust.

It's happened dozens of times before. The policymakers got it more right
than not. Much of the downside occurred despite policies, not because of
them.

--
Ed Huntress
(remove "3" from email address for email reply)