As a citizen of the United States, I would like to give my opinion concerning the economic crises that we, as a nation, are facing now in the winter of 2008. I am not an economist, so this is an unprofessional view.
In my opinion, the crises we face right now, started on September 11, 2001 when the New York Trade Center towers were destroyed. This shocking episode in America caught everybody completely by surprise, because no one imagined we could ever be attacked in such a manner.
Because of this, our government had to spend a lot of money, setting up the Homeland Security Department and all the other things necessary to prepare for some other shocking attack.
America then went to war in Afghanistan looking for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists. A few months after that we went to war in Iraq. The cost of both of these wars, all these past seven years, has been staggering and it has all been added to the National debt.
Meanwhile, here at home, Americans were on a borrowing and spending spree. The stock market was going up, gold was going up, oil was going up and commodities were going up, all because of demand from consumers, businesses and governments.
I am 75 years old and I knew by experience that this boom could not last forever. What goes up, always comes down, sooner or later.
In any booming economy there are always abuses, and this time, all Americans, businesses and government got into the act. Even me.
Consumers borrowed on their credit cards and spent. They went way over into debt for new homes, cars, etc.
Banks were lending money to people for homes, who had little or nothing to put down. Pretty soon, the cost of everything was so high that the consumer went on a spending slow down or freeze. Gasoline was so high, people were riding buses, trains, bicycles, mopeds, or on foot to save money. Food prices were sky rocketing and so were other goods because of the unrealistic surge in the price of oil.
Housing prices peaked because they had finally been priced too high to buy any more. Also, when people buy new houses they also have to buy all those appliances, furniture etc. and they also stopped buying those things too.
Gasoline was so high people cut back spending on a lot of things. When this happens a domino effect sets in. People start to be laid off from their jobs. When that happens they can't pay the mortgage and they walked away from their homes. It all snowballed with bank failures because the banks were not getting paid by the borrowers.
I have seen lots of these booms and busts in my lifetime but this is the worst. Are we going to be able to pull out of this, with everybody either begging Washington for money or being bailed out by the government.
Who is to blame for all of this, George W. Bush?
He did not make anyone go into debt. He did not make anyone use their credit cards. He did not tell the banks to make risky loans. He did not make the hedge funds drive up the price of oil. He did not tell Osama bin Laden to kill all those people. He did not tell the hurricanes to strike America, etc.
But he gets the blame for everything because people have to blame someone instead of just facing the facts.
I wish someone would write a book entitled: "Look What Got Dumped On Bush".
Did he make any mistakes? Show me a person who hasn't. Could the war have been handled better? Could he have handled the hurricanes better? Could he have handled the economic crises better? Any Monday morning quarter-backer can answer that.
For the past several years there has been an international campaign of "Bush Bashing" of unprecedented criticism against one of our Presidents. It has been particularly harsh in our own main stream media. The main stream media has always been liberal and has always favored the democratic party. The main stream media did not want Bush to even win the presidency, so why would they support him at all. And they haven't.
I, for one, am not going to join in the unfair orgy of attacks on George W. Bush
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