Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Former Bush Economist Voices Concerns Over Plan

If you only read one thing today about the Treasury's proposal to purchase bad Wall Street debt, make it this:
The financial system is the heart of our economy and it is in trouble. If we do not fix it soon, we risk a serious recession...Bold action can be designed with lower costs to taxpayers, while accomplishing the goals Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has laid out. Elected officials should act quickly -- but carefully.
This quote contains only the beginning and end so you can see where the authors, including former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Glenn Hubbard (a Bush appointee) and his co-authors are coming from.

We need to act, they say, but we also need to get it right. Hubbard gives the Administration credit for taking urgent, decisive action, but he also gives due props to Senate Democrats who want to add some good ideas as well (unfortunately, some Democrats have less helpful ideas though). He and his co-authors provide three concrete suggestions for improving the Administration's proposal.

This article is the exact opposite of 90 percent of what I've seen and heard on the situation - one with no exterior motive to help position one candidate or ideology.

Art: the cartoon accompanied the original article in the online Wall Street Journal.

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