Herbert Hoover economics

The business of America is ... pleasing the plutocrats? (Photo: J.P. Morgan, 1903)

Dick Cheney/George Bush economics is kind of like the Herbert Hoover variety. At least in some key respects.

The basic problem of the country needing an administration like this one to do something constructive to meet a mounting economic crisis was summarized on the PBS Newshour for 03/14/0608:

JUDY WOODRUFF: And how do you see that, David? I mean, again, in terms of what ordinary people are feeling, at what point does the political system have to make a turn, make a decision to do some of these things that Jane's describing?

DAVID WESSEL [economics editor for the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal]: Well, I think we're getting pretty close. I think it's unfair to say that they haven't done anything. The efforts they took were designed to try and force lenders and mortgage servicers and borrowers to come to terms voluntarily, to set up a system to make that happen. ...

I think what's happening, though, is the Fed is about to run out of ammunition. And if we have a few more weeks like the one we had this week, the system will just have to respond because so much will be at stake.

Secretary Paulson, the treasury secretary, is talking to these people on Wall Street all the time, and we know he's getting yelps of pain from them. At some point, the combination of that, the shakiness of the markets, and the political pressure from Democrats is going to make them move. (my emphasis)

That pretty much sums it up. They're "talking to these people on Wall Street all the time" and the Cheney-Bush officials really empathize with their pain.

They're not talking much to the people who face losing their houses through foreclosure, though. Because Cheney and Bush and Paulson and Bernanke don't give a flying fig what happens to them as long as their plutocratic friends don't have to suffer too much "pain" as a result.

JPMorgan just agreed to purchase ailing investment bank Bear Stearns, which survived the Great Depression but not Cheney/Bush economics at a price around a tenth of what it was last week and around a fortieth of what it was at the end of November ($80 vs. $2). Bloomberg reports, "The U.S. Federal Reserve will provide financing for the transaction, including support for as much as $30 billion of Bear Stearns's 'less-liquid assets'." Among other things, this means that the Federal Reserve's attempt at bailing out Bear Stearns just a few days ago has already failed. (JPMorgan Chase Buys Bear Stearns for $240 Million by Yalman Onaran Bloomberg.com 03/16/08; Asia Stocks, U.S. Futures, Dollar Decline After Fed Cuts Rate by Patrick Rial and Emma O'Brien Bloomberg.com 03/17/08).

Y'all are doing a heckuva job on the economy, too, Republicans.

Tags: recession, republican party, republicans