Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

JPMorgan Chase CEO: Mistakes of the Bush error helped cause economic collapse

I have to admit, I didn't see this coming:
JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, in a letter to shareholders, touched on a theme that critics of the Iraq war were highlighting more than a year ago: That spending on the war was damaging to the economy.

Dimon cited "an expensive war in Iraq" as one of the possible triggers of the economic collapse. Spending on the war ballooned the deficit and crowded out investment in domestic priorities. Meanwhile, the trade deficit soared...

Dimon also cites the 2008 energy crisis as a shock to the economy that played a part in bringing it down. The energy crisis may still have occurred without the instability in the Middle East caused by the U.S. invasion, but with Iraq's oil supply knocked off-line for years, it didn't help.
It's not every day you see a powerful Wall Street executive citing the Bush administration's disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq as one of the mistakes that brought about our current economic woes.

It's worth noting that there's an added layer of irresponsibility as far as Iraq is concerned. That is, not only was the rationale for attacking Iraq bogus (and fabricated, as a matter of fact) but the Bush administration was cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans at the same time - with the enthusiastic support of the Republican-controlled Congress, we might add.

As a consequence, revenue went down while deficits and needless military spending increased. How much has Iraq cost us, again? Oh yeah.... well over half a trillion dollars. And that's just what we've spent up till this point. It doesn't include future spending, nor does it include the cost of healthcare for veterans of our armed forces who honorably served their country in Iraq.

Good thing we elected a Democratic president last November. Had John McCain won, we would not be committed to responsibly exiting Iraq, nor would our government be in competent hands (remember, the fundamentals of our economy are strong?)

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