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President Bush Discusses Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ news/ releases/ 2008/ 10/ 20...
President Bush on Tuesday said, "There's no doubt that people from all walks of life and all aspects understand that we're having serious times. Families are squeezed by the high price of gasoline, and feeling the pinch of food prices and monthly
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Your 401(k) is in stocks? It's 'going to go down,' President Bush says
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/10/econom...Your 401(k) is in stocks? It's 'going to go down,' President Bush says 2:16 PM, October 7, 2008 Twenty years ago, President Ronald Reagan gave a global trade speech in a warehouse in the Midwest, and the large shipping containers piled behind him suggested the potential reach of American manufacturers. Today, President Bush spoke at an office products warehouse in Chantilly, Va., a Washington suburb, and the boxes that formed the backdrop could serve as a less sunny economic metaphor: unsold merchandise. He used the speech and question-and-answer session that followed to repeatedly defend his decision to intervene in the marketplace with last week's $700-billion support package (he twice used the word "rescue" to describe it, avoiding the more common, but emotional, term: "bailout"). Bush, speaking to local businesspeople, said: You know, I basically believe that if people make bad decisions in the marketplace, they ought to fail. The problem is, in this case, failure would have cost you. What appeared to be something that might have been isolated, you know, in New York would have cost you the job. He said he tried to explain this when he was in his hometown of Midland, Texas, this past weekend. Some old guy said, 'you know, hey,man, what are you doing?' And I said, 'I'm recognizing reality, that this is a serious economic situation that requires strong government action.' To those who might grumble that the government is bailing out Wall Street execs who made bad calls, Bush said: Listen, people are angry about the fact that people look like they're dragging out money when there's failure. I understand that. i don't mind rewarding success. It's when people make money on failure. And I think there's going to be -- there needs to be a reassessment of these packages. There needs to be a reassessment of how interconnected people became, how they made promises that they were not in a capital position to fix. He also sought to soften the blow to stockholders: No question, in the short term, the value of your 401(k), if you're in stocks, is going to go down. The question is, how fast can we recover this economy? -- James Gerstenzang Photo: Susan Walsh / Associated Press
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President Bush Makes a Keynes Insight Today
http://supremecourtjester.blogspot.com/2008/10/president-bus...Today during President Bush's tour of a Guernsey Office Products, Inc. warehouse in Chantilly, Virginia he was asked by a worker what would happen to his 401-k. Here's the question and answer from the white house website: "Q Mr. President, what do you think is going to happen to my 401(k) and other people's retirement plan? THE PRESIDENT: I think in the long run they're going to be fine because the stock markets will reflect real value. In the short term, they're going to take a hit." The president reassured him that his retirement funds will be fine "in the long run." But maybe not within his lifetime....for as John Maynard Keynes famously said "In the long run, we're all dead."
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Bush Speaks from Chantilly
http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2008/10/bush-speaks-f...President Bush met with a group of business people in Chantilly, Virginia and no, it wasn't The Bilderberg Group. He spoke to regional business leaders. His words and my factual inserts are below: One pressing concern is obviously the cost of energy. The cost of energy affects families, but it affects businesses as well, like Guernsey, which rely on energy to ship and make your products. High energy costs obviously are attributable to the high price of oil and natural gas. Gas demand down 9.5% from last year (per CNBC), gas prices up 24.5% And that's why this administration, in working with Congress, has dramatically expanded funding for research into alternatives, including hybrid car batteries, fuels like ethanol and biodiesel, solar and wind power, and safe and nuclear power -- safe and clean nuclear power. The rescue package I signed last week extended tax incentives to alternative energy sources. In other words, the rescue package was just not aimed at dealing with the financial issues; it was aimed at dealing with the energy issues, too, to help encourage alternative energy so we become less dependent on foreign oil. However, in the meantime, we need to be drilling. I mean, I'd rather us drill here than send our money overseas. And we can do so in environmentally friendly ways. Hurricane Ike spilled over 500,000 gallons of oil. Katrina spilled 20 times that amount. Congress responded to the will of the people by lifting the ban on offshore energy exploration, which is good. It's going to take a while to go through all the permitting and all the environmental regulations, but nevertheless, a step was -- a positive step was taken to become less dependent on foreign oil. Bush appointed Cheney minion F. Chase Hutto, III to the DOE to drive permitting. George W. extended the government sponsored drilling research arm. How convenient for the feds to pick up the costs for drilling R & D.
