Question for Republicans and Modu

[jesmo]

Who do you blame the current ""recession" on, Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter?

I am just curious.

[AndrewTX]

I don't blame it on either, it would be stupid for anyone to do that. I blame it Grover Cleveland.

[bullmoose88]

Can't blame carter or clinton for this...I sort of blame bernake and bush...the former for trying to stave off a recession by lowering interest rates too far (which in turn weakens the dollar which drives gas prices through the roof, and drives inflation up more) and Bush for 1) appointing Bernake, 2) likely pressuring him into helping his sputtering economy and 3) putting more dollars out in an economy thats suffering from increasing prices.

[Eraserhead]

I blame jamespol.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I blame jamespol.

Possibly, although I think Global Warming could also be the culprit

[exopolitician]

I blame the homosexuals.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I blame the Democrats in congress who drove this nation into a recession after taking over in 2007. It certainly isn't Bush. His Heavenly policies probably stopped the recession from hitting right as the news broke that the GOP lost the congress. I expected the market to tank the day after.

[dead0man]

Democrats and Jesmo: who do we blame for everything else?  Bush or the Jews?

[cannonia]

The economy would have ups and downs without politicians getting involved, but both parties can take some blame for the climate of regulation that businesses have to operate in.

The current slowdown seems to be housing-related, and while it's mainly an investment bubble, government shares some blame.  Alan Greenspan kept interest rates too low for too long, and congressional Democrats pushed lenders to offer bad loans in the name of "fairness."  When the stock market looked like a bad investment and housing demand made it look like a good investment, the bubble inflated.  Now it's popped, and it's obvious why places that were dependent on construction and real estate jobs are in trouble.

[MasterJedi]

Alan Greenspan had a lot to do with it as well.

[MODU]

There is no one person responsible for this economic downturn (it isn't a technical recession yet).  Factors that are playing a major role include:

Predatory loan lending
Antiquated oil/gas/energy policies and infrastructure
Lack of domestic innovation to export services (something not picked up in the trade deficit)
Global industrial expansion
Global reevaluation of currency
Civil unrest in key nations

Some of these problems date back decades and some of them are current.  Just as the economic downturn in 2000 and 2001 aren't Clinton's fault due to the collapse of the tech bubble, this one isn't the fault of Bush due to the collapse of the housing bubble.  They are economic cycles that occur.  The question that needs to be asked is how do we stabilize the economy to make it grow again?

Predatory loan lending - End the practice by making it illegal.  Follow that up with requiring lenders to properly screen their borrowers and provide them with a clear payment plan indicating their highest anticipated monthly payment (in regards to ARMs).

Antiquated oil/gas/energy... - There is no one simple solution to this.  We need to remove production quotas from California refineries, build new refineries to keep up with demand, allow domestic drilling of the largest known oil field(s) in protected lands (you choose the largest to minimize overall impact while leaving the smaller ones/lands untouched), build new nuke reactors, jump start domestic production of wind technology (which we can not only use domestically but export internationally as well), etc....

Lack of innovation - like with the wind technology, we need to jumpstart production of items which are demanded internationally as well as develop new technologies that improve society.  We've been a little slow lately (we got comfortable with the pc).

Global industrial expansion - Again, we need to build/sell high tech items here, as well as take advantage of international labor forces to reduce our costs and improve our profit margins.

Global reevaluation of currency - this is one of the few things that we don't really control.  We can limit the amount of currency in circulation, but the international variables play a bigger role in the value since they base their currency valuation off of ours.

Civil unrest - The UN needs to become more proactive if they are to serve as a global governing body.  If not, then the EU, the US, and the AU need to be more active in regions that need help.  Calming these hotspots will reduce tension on the global economy and increase demand for goods and services.

[HappyWarrior]

I blame the Democrats in congress who drove this nation into a recession after taking over in 2007. It certainly isn't Bush. His Heavenly policies probably stopped the recession from hitting right as the news broke that the GOP lost the congress. I expected the market to tank the day after.

Lay off the peyote