Posted on 05/19/2016 6:59:56 AM PDT by all the best
That Hillary Clinton has—–unaccountably——stood by her man for 40 years is her particular foible. But now she wants 320 million Americans to stand by him, too, by electing her President so she can make Bill the nation’s economic czar:
During a speech in Kentucky Sunday she referred to “my husband, who I will put in charge of revitalizing the economy ’cause he knows what he’s doing.”
Actually, he doesn’t.
Herein follows a two-part essay on why Bill and Hillary Clinton had precious little to do with the vaunted prosperity of the 1990s, and why another twofer would be exceedingly bad for the nation.
In truth, it was the doing of Alan Greenspan, and not in a good way.
In fact, the roaring tech era prosperity was but an old fashioned crack-up boom. That is, a simulacrum of prosperity that was an artifact of monetary inflation and financial speculation. It was not merely unsustainable; it was guaranteed to boomerang against the future, and it has in spades.
The Greenspan Boom was thus the very fount of the financial toxins which have plagued this century. To wit, the housing and credit implosions after 2007, the stock market meltdown and the collapse of the Wall Street gambling houses in 2008-2009, the disabled, stall-speed main street economy since the crisis, the unspeakable windfalls to the 1% enabled by NIRP and QE and the desperation in the flyover zone of America that begat Donald Trump—-all had their roots in the 1990s monetary perfidies of Easy Al.
(Excerpt) Read more at davidstockmanscontracorner.com ...
I am not too savvy on this topic, however, some time back I recall reading an article saying that when Clinton took office and floated bonds to pay for government, as is traditional, he ordered they be short term bonds, payable when he left office, Apparently before they had used long term bonds. If this is the case them large amounts came due for the next president. What say ye?
not to forget the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) created under Carter and expanded under Clinton.
Clinton also spent down the military
Readiness was deplorable
Tank crews fired 2 live rounds a year
USAF aircraft were grounded for parts
Then bush took power and the Chinese forced down a P-3 and held the crew hostage
Then came the 911 attack that had been planned by KSM ever since the first WTC attack under Clinton did nothing
Bush had to rebuild
It was a fake prosperity and we paid the price when W took office...especially with OBL who the pervert couldn’t be bothered to take out. And yet the Bushs have embraced the Clintons and now disparage Trump, who genuinely wants to fix what’s wrong.
Things aren’t what they seem.
Why Columbia?
WIKI REFERENCE---In 2000, the Clinton administration committed $1.3 billion in foreign aid to the corrupt country of Columbia...... and up to five hundred military personnel to train local forces. An additional three hundred civilian personnel were allowed to assist in the eradication of coca.
The Clinton deal was an addition to $330 million of previously approved US aid to Colombia. $818 million was earmarked for 2000, with $256 million for 2001.
The Clinton-era appropriations for his Columbia Plan made Colombia the third largest recipient of foreign aid from the United States at the time.
--SNIP--
As of 2008, the U.S. has provided nearly $1.3 billion to Colombia through Clinton Plan Colombia nonmilitary aid programs:
<><> Alternative Development (2000-2008 cost: $500 million)
<><> Internally Displaced Persons (2000-2008 cost: $247 million)
<><> Demobilization and Reintegration (2000-2008 cost: $44 million)
<><> Democracy and Human Rights (2000-2008 cost: $158 million)
<><> Promote the Rule of Law (2000-2008 cost: $238 million)
LONG READ--REST AT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Colombia
==============================
04/16/2008----Former President Bill Clinton has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars speaking on behalf of a Colombia-based group pushing the trade pact, and representatives of that organization tell The Huffington Post that the former president shared their sentiment.
In June 2005, Clinton was paid $800,000 by the Colombia-based Gold Service International to give four speeches throughout Latin America. The organization is, ostensibly, a development group tasked with bringing investment to the country and educating world leaders about the Colombia’s business opportunities.
The group’s chief operating officer, Andres Franco, said in an interview that the group supports the congressional ratification of the free trade agreement and that, when Clinton was on his speaking tour, he expressed similar opinions. “He was supportive of the trade agreement at the time that he came, but that was several years ago.
In the present context, I don’t know what his position would be. It is not only about union trade rights. It is about what benefit or damage it can do to the US economy,” said Franco. “Events with the Clinton campaign [concerning Mark Penn] are not good at all for the trade agreement... Right now it became a campaign issues and that is sad, because it needs to go through.”
The comments were supported by a June 23, 2005 article from the news portal Terra (uncovered by Ben Smith at Politico) in which Clinton offered unambiguous support for the free trade agreement with Colombia.
They appear to be the first public indication that Clinton has, at least in the past, supported the trade deal. But evidence that the former president has been sympathetic to Colombia’s position is widely known. In 2007, Clinton met personally with and accepted an award from Colombia’s controversial president, Alvaro Uribe, during a time when the country was attempting to improve its image within the United States.
Subsequently, Clinton urged Congress to view the country in a more favorable light.
Moreover, Clinton has helped Frank Giustra, one of the biggest donors to the Clinton Global Initiative, score meetings with high-ranking Colombian officials. Giustra has several business interests in the country, and both he and Clinton have collaborated on an effort to (cough) "fight poverty in developing world by partnering up with mining companies in Colombia and elsewhere." http://nypost.com/2008/12/19/bubba-sheik-ing-the-money-tree/
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UT OH---Obama/s now requesting billions for Columbia---to (cough) curb the drug trade.
Ping
I really expected Stockman, of all people, to point out Clinton’s waste of the excess Social Security collections.
We’re paying big for that now.
Clinton did well thanks to cheap oil. And that was provided by Bush the first. Clinton deserves little if any credit.
Bill Clinton set out to trash the economy in his first two years. Newt Gingrich pulled him back from the brink.
Brevity is not Mr. Stockman’s strong suit.
Here’s what saved the Clinton economy: you can thank Bill Gates III and his decision to put in an Internet Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) “stack” as standard in Windows 95, which mean it was very easy to connect to the Internet using a V.90 modem. That very fact caused the first technology boom of 1995-2000, which tremendously benefited the Bill Clinton’s Presidency in the second term.
In the 1st two years of the Clinton Admin (Jan '93-Jan '95), the DJIA went from about 5500 to 6000 (+/-), a modest gain. Then Gingrich & the Republicans took control of the House. By Jan '96, the Dow was over 8k. And by Jan '97 after 2 years of Gingrich/Republican control, the Dow stood at over 10,000!
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