Layman Economics

Today the Dow closed at 10609.66, a full 50 points lower than the day George W Bush took office (how's that market economics working out for you?). That means that in 8 years of Republican stewardship the economy has shown a net negative movement.

I wish I had more time to devote to this subject, but as a lowly medical school student I honestly don't know much about the economy, probably about as much as John McCain.

What I do know is the Bush administration, as well as his surrogate nominee John McCain have proposed that our tax money to fund Social Security should be placed in private markets.  Some of the names mentioned for these holdings should sound familiar right about now; Lehmann Brothers and the no-longer-independent Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch.

Say we would have bet our Social Security future on the market in 2001 assuming that the stewardship of the Republicans would have led to larger gains in those investments.  Remember a lot of their platform is based on larger tax breaks for the wealthy which leads to higher investment in the market and large returns.  Those assumptions would have been wrong.  According to the Center for American Progress, the Bush economic plan (the same one John McCain is pushing, "make the Bush tax cuts permanent", let Phil Gramm who created this mess continue his policies as he is McCain's top economic advisor to the campaign) has stifled the average familial income (PDF) and given large gains to the yacht riding wealthy of the country.

Again, I know next to nothing about the economy, but I can read a chart and seeing the Dow Jones head down down down is not a good sign.  More of the Same????

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