James Kennedy and Alan Greenspan, on the effect of mortgage equity withdrawals (MEWs) on the growth of the US economy.

Notice that in both 2001 and 2002, the US economy continued to grow on an annual basis (the "technical" recession was just a few quarters). Their work suggests that this growth was entirely due to MEWs. In fact, MEWs contributed over 3% to GDP growth in 2004 and 2005, and 2% in 2006. Without US homeowners using their homes as an ATM, the economy would have been very sluggish indeed, averaging much less than 1% for the six years of the Bush presidency. Indeed, as a side observation, without home equity withdrawals the economy would have been so bad it would have been almost impossible for Bush to have won a second term.

The Economic Blue Screen of Death - Thoughts From The Frontline - Investment Strategies Analysis Intelligence for Seasoned Investors.

https://www.mauldineconomics.com/frontlinethoughts/the-economic-blue-screen-of-death-mwo101708

 RIGHT WING BS, LOOK AT LOAN PERFORMANCE BUBS

GSE Critics Ignore Loan Performance


TIMEFRAME:

Q When did the Bush Mortgage Bubble start?

A The general timeframe is it started late 2004.

From Bush's President's Working Group on Financial Markets MARCH 2008

The Presidents Working Group's March policy statement acknowledged that turmoil in financial markets clearly was triggered by a dramatic weakening of underwriting standards for U.S. subprime mortgages, beginning in late 2004 and extending into 2007



Q Did the Community Reinvestment Act under Carter/Clinton caused it?


A "Since 1995 there has been essentially no change in the basic CRA rules or enforcement process that can be reasonably linked to the subprime lending activity. This fact weakens the link between the CRA and the current crisis since the crisis is rooted in poor performance of mortgage loans made between 2004 and 2007. "

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/20081203_analysis.pdf


FACTS on Dubya's great recession

https://www.usmessageboard.com/threads/facts-on-dubyas-great-recession.362889/

https://www.usmessageboard.com/threads/president-trump-crushes-obama-in-first-four-months-comparison.594112/page-8#post-17258248

Compared to Ronnie?


The Iran-contra scandal as it became known, did serious damage to the Reagan presidency. <b>The investigations were effectively halted when President George H. W. Bush (Reagan's vice president) pardoned Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger before his trial began.></b>


Iran-Contra Affair

Elliott Abrams (R) , CONVICTED
Robert C. McFarlane, (R) , CONVICTED
Alan D. Fiers (R), CONVICTED
Richard R. Miller (R), CONVICTED
Clair George (R), CONVICTED
Richard Secord (R), CONVICTED
Thomas G. Clines (R), CONVICTED
Carl R. Channel (R), CONVICTED
John Poindexter, (R), CONVICTED
Oliver North (R), CONVICTED


Department of Housing and Urban Development grant rigging

James Watt, (R), CONVICTED
Phillip D. Winn (R), CONVICTED
Thomas Demery (R), CONVICTED
Deborah Gore Dean (R), CONVICTED
Joseph A. Strauss, (R), CONVICTED
Silvio D. DeBartolomeis (R), CONVICTED
Lobbying scandal
Michael Deaver, (R), CONVICTED
Lyn Nofziger (R), CONVICTED


EPA scandals

<b>Over twenty high-level EPA employees were removed from office during Reagan's first three years as president.</b>

Rita Lavelle, (R) an administrator at the EPA, misused Superfund monies and was convicted of perjury.

Anne Gorsuch Burford, (R) the controversial head of the EPA. Burford, citing "Executive Privilege," refused to turn over Superfund records to Congress. She was found in Contempt, whereupon she resigned.


Inslaw Affair

Inslaw Affair (1985-1994+); a protracted legal case that alleged that top-level officials of President Ronald Reagan's (R) Department of Justice were involved in copyright violation of the Promis program from Inslaw Inc. forcing it into bankruptcy and then failed to appoint an independent counsel to investigate it.


D. Lowell Jensen, (D) Deputy Attorney General was held in Contempt of Congress.

C. Madison Brewer A high ranking Justice Department official was held in Contempt of Congress.

Attorney General Edwin Meese (R) refused to investigate the matter. His successor Attorney General Dick Thornburgh (R) also refused to investigate.

They were succeeded by Attorney General William P. Barr (R) who also refused to investigate the matter. No charges were ever filed


Savings & loan crisis

"The theft from the taxpayer by the community that fattened on the growth of the savings and loan (S&L) industry in the 1980s is the worst public scandal in American history. Teapot Dome in the Harding administration and the Credit Mobilier in the times of Ulysses S. Grant have been taken as the ultimate horror stories of capitalist democracy gone to seed. Measuring by money, [or] by the misallocation of national resources... the S&L outrage makes Teapot Dome and Credit Mobilier seem minor episodes."


Operation Ill Wind

Operation Ill Wind was a three-year investigation launched in 1986 by the FBI into corruption by U.S. government and military officials, and private defense contractors.


<b>FIFTY CONVICTIONS IN THIS SCANDAL ALONE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_administration_scandals

National Bureau of Economic Research:

The top 0.1 percent was composed of 160,000 families with average 
wealth of $72.8 million. All told, they owned 22 percent of the nation’s
wealth.

Meanwhile, the bottom 90 percent -- 144 million families with average
wealth of $84,000 -- owned only 22.8 percent of the wealth.

In other words, the top 0.1 percent and the bottom 90 percent of U.S.
households own virtually the same share of all the nation's wealth. Is there a problem with this number?

Non-Partisan Congressional Tax Report Debunks Core Conservative Economic Theory

The conclusion?

Lowering the tax rates on the wealthy and top earners in America donot appear to have any impact on the nation’s economic growth.

This paragraph from the report says it all—

“The reduction in the top tax rates appears to be uncorrelated with saving, investment and productivity growth. The top tax rates appear to have little or no relation to the size of the economic pie. However, the top tax rate reductions appear to be associated with the increasing concentration of income at the top of the income distribution.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/11/02/non-partisan-congressional-tax-report-debunks-core-conservative-economic-theory-gop-suppresses-study/#2839b7ac431b

Bush's statement, "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised" indicates certainty.

Cheney's statement, "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." indicates certainty.

None of the reliable evidence indicated certainty. Even the October '02 NIE contained caveats. Bush could not say truthfully and with certainty that Saddam Hussein had WMD, and yet he did. He lied.



 Both Colin Powell in February 2001, and Condoleezza Rice in July 2001 stated in no uncertain terms that Saddam Hussein was not a threat


 Furthermore, Bush et al made the decision to go to war (apparently without evidence of any kind) in November, 2001, only 4 months after Rice stated Saddam Hussein was not a threat.

"Significantly, the decision is made independent of normal policy-making procedures—a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq was not requested, members of Congress were not consulted, and the concerns of senior military officers and intelligence analysts were ignored."




 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-09-10-iraq-war_x.htm



 According to John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,

“Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” Rockefeller said. “In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.”

Bush had to lie, because if he had told the truth--Saddam Hussein is not a threat, but we know he wants to acquire WMD-- the American people would never have allowed the Iraq war.


 Who should be held accountable? The evidence is overwhelming that Bush lied. You can only take the premise "he didn't know he was lying" so far before it begins to sound absurd. Considering the consequences of his actions, it's time to stop making excuses for him.





 Even before his first term, Bush told his biographer, Mickey Herskowitz:

“One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief,” Herskowitz remembers Bush saying. “My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of [Kuwait] and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade Iraq, if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”



 Hussein was an obstacle for PNAC's objective, to “remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region’s oil.”



 It reveals he wanted to invade Iraq even before he was in office. As soon as he took office, he asked his cabinet members to "find a way to attack Iraq," according to Paul O'Neill.



 http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bush-sought-way-to-invade-iraq/


  Eight months later, 9/11 provided the "Pearl Harbor event" PNAC stated would be needed as a catalyst for war. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and other PNAC members were (coincidentally) already in place in the Bush administration to carry out the PNAC mission.



 Luckily for Bush, 9/11 made war a popular thing. It's why he said he hit the trifecta.


 He was wrong about WMD (maybe he should have let Hans Blix finish his work), but he accomplished the PNAC mission. Saddam Hussein is gone, and Bush is now demanding 58 permanent bases in Iraq:


 http://www.alternet.org/story/88256/status_of_forces_agreement_will_decide_whether_iraq_is_independent_or_%22a_client_state_of_the_us%22

"The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today." President George W. Bush, in his daily diary, September 11, 2001