Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Great Recession

I love the fact that people are starting to call the current economic crisis "The Great Recession". By pinning a name on it, we can start to define it. When did it start, what are its causes, and who is to blame. It seems to me that it started with the economic meltdown in the waning days of the Bush administration. The stage was set by the deregulation of the banking industry (pushed primarily by Republicans), which lead to the real estate bubble. The second blow was the Bush tax cuts, which lowered revenues, and the third were the two Bush wars, which caused the deficit to explode.

Now dolts like Perry and Cain suggest the solution is further tax cuts (primarily benefiting the rich) and further deregulation. If those were such good ideas the first time around, why are we in this mess?