Bill Clinton on the Economy

On December 7, 2011 I heard former President Bill Clinton on the View. He said 2 months before our last election when Lehmann Brothers collapsed it precipitated a financial crisis and we were already in a conventional recession (our economy was slowing down, there were no new jobs and the median income was $2,000 less than when he left office); so when this happened the economy went into a tailspin until July 1, 2009. He said (look at history) when the financial system of a country collapses it takes 5 – 10 years to get back to full employment. And, when buildings have been widely owned by private citizens and there’s a real estate collapse and a financial collapse it normally takes 10 years. What America should be trying to do instead of being mad at everything that’s not working, it should be looking at what is working around the country and the world and say we can beat this and be the first country ever to do it in less than 5 years. He says if you look at the places that are working you’ll see that they have a strong economy and a smart government working together. Conflict makes for good politics but its lousy economics. He said if you look at the good ideas that the Republicans have had you’ll see that the payroll tax cut is a good idea, the Jobs Act and the health bill (tried in 1994) were all originally Republican ideas. He said back in 1994 the pre-Tea Party shut down the government, the American people didn’t like it and because people wanted to keep their jobs they started working together. There’s been no action forcing an event like that since, forcing them to work together and it’s up to the American people. He said there have been some events that are giving him hope – the Republicans are split on the tax cut, that’s a good thing, it makes it bipartisan, the Boeing settlement between management and labor to put jobs in South Carolina and Washington, the auto industry agreement that the President was involved in where labor, management and environmentalists all agreed to increase car mileage in a way that would save consumers money and put 150,000 people to work. The stimulus package which was agreed upon by both parties kept us in a recession and prevented a depression. Clinton said if we retrofit buildings we could be twice as energy efficient as we are, it saves consumers money and puts people to work – for every $1 billion invested we could put 7,000 people to work. In reference to Gingrich calling Obama the Food Stamp President, Clinton said he can turn a good phrase – the food stamp program is a good thing. He also said that the best thing Romney did was the health care in Massachusetts (MA), in an article he read yesterday it pointed out that the cost of inflation rose less in MA than in the rest of the country, they cover everybody, life expectancy is longer and the health indexes are better. He says we should be optimistic – we still have the biggest economy in the world, our average work force is younger than in Europe and Japan, we have the ability to bring back manufacturing and become more energy independent we if take a serious approach; those things along with flushing the mortgage debt quicker (the banks didn’t have the money to cover the risk). He said people have been counting us out since George Washington fought in the American Revolution and everyone that has bet against America has been losing money. He said what you have to do is to be for things that will bring America back; not debating whether the government is bad and private industry is good. There is hope and we can come back.

This is not the first time I’ve heard someone say we can get out of this mess. Back In September, I heard mayors and others say Americans need to have confidence in ourselves and us as a nation. And recently economists are saying the people buying all kinds of goods have made a difference. On December 15 it was said that the things that could derail or stop the progress are the gridlock in Washington and the problems with the Euro.  

On December 10, 2011 it was reported that Perry flubbed the name and number of the Supreme Court Justices in an interview and ABC News held the 17^th Republican debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa; it was the most watched debate and I’ll get to it tomorrow.