Worst President Ever - Economic Argument

In the December 2007 edition of "Vanity Fair," Joseph Stiglitz (professor of economics at Columbia University and chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors) wrote a stinging rebuke of Bush's presidency. His premise is that Bush has been the worst President in history in terms of economic stewardship, even surpassing Herbert Hoover.

"The economic effects of Bush’s presidency are more insidious than those of Hoover, harder to reverse, and likely to be longer-lasting. There is no threat of America’s being displaced from its position as the world’s richest economy. But our grandchildren will still be living with, and struggling with, the economic consequences of Mr. Bush."

And he makes a great argument against the Bush tax cuts: "You’ll still hear some - and, loudly, the president himself - argue that the administration’s tax cuts were meant to stimulate the economy, but this was never true. The bang for the buck - the amount of stimulus per dollar of deficit - was astonishingly low. Therefore, the job of economic stimulation fell to the Federal Reserve Board, which stepped on the accelerator in a historically unprecedented way, driving interest rates down to 1 percent. In real terms, taking inflation into account, interest rates actually dropped to negative 2 percent. The predictable result was a consumer spending spree. Looked at another way, Bush’s own fiscal irresponsibility fostered irresponsibility in everyone else."

The article is well worth reading all the way through. Check it out here.