Archive for July 14th, 2003
Bush: A “Modern-Day Hoover”?
It’s a wonderful thing to have friends who’re way smarter than you.
Responding to my political musings herein, Jack W. says I should dispense with the “anti-Bush rhetoric” and “stay away from citing the NY Times op-ed board too frequently.”
And although he feels we shouldn’t conclude just yet that Iraq never had WMDs, and though he says our relations with our allies haven’t been too severely damaged by Bush’s unilateralism, he says he’s a bit worried about the state of Dubya’s economy:
“Bush is turning into a modern day Hoover with increasing unemployment rolls, reliance on state and local agencies to cover unfunded mandates (even though they
have no money in their budgets), and large federal deficits (though it is only at 4% of GDP, which is not bad–in 92′ the deficit was 8% of GDP). Granted not all of the extra expenditures are his fault, but you can’t blame everything the cost of the war on
terror.
Obviously the fiscal police at the Fed would not let another Great Depression happen but we could see continued stagnant growth (1-2% per quarter) for the foreseeable future, which is not good for the job market, business re-investment, and general competitiveness of American large cap industrials against foreign rivals.”
Okay, Jack, you got me there.
Octodogs
Everyone out there: I want an Octodog Frankfurter Converter for Christmas. (Via Miles B., obviously.)
Motorbiking Vietnam Retrospective
Chris D. sends word that Explore Indochina, formerly known as Motorbiking Vietnam, has re-vamped their site.
The fine folks at this Hanoi-based outfit guided us on a thrilling four-day motorcycle ride last year. And their new site includes a couple new photos–me navigating a rather difficult bridge, and Chris dangling from a precarious steel cage used for crossing a valley.
Back from Vilcabamba
Got back last night from an excellent weekend-long excursion to Vilcabamba. We stayed at a hosteria called Madre Tierra; it was, as always, exceptional.