By Dave Lindorff

In a New York Times column on Monday (“Behind the Bush
Bust”), economics columnist Paul Krugman mused on whether President
George Bush could be blamed for the nation’s economic crisis. His
conclusion was that, yes, to some extent the crisis was Bush’s fault,
but he largely lets the current administration off the hook, instead
blaming Republican policies dating back 10-15 years.

Oddly, Krugman does say that a key cause of economic problems has
been rising energy prices, but he then attributes these to “growing
demand from China and other emerging economies,” and suggests that
prices might have been at least a bit lower had the US, after 9/11,
adopted “higher gas taxes and fuel efficiency standards,” a failing he
attributes to Bush.

By Dave Lindorff

One remark by a minor Israeli cabinet officer hinting at a possible US or Israeli attack on Iran has sent oil prices up by a record $11/barrel to a record $139 per barrel Friday. That should tell us what would happen if the Bush administration were crazy enough to attack Iran, or to let its vassal state of Israel do it.

Most analysts say an actual attack on Iran would send oil almost immediately to past $300 per barrel—a level that would strangle economies worldwide and send the world into an economic collapse not since the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs kicked off the Great Depression.
The repercussions of that would be staggering.

By Dave Lindorff

When you hear a number like $100 billion (the amount Bush is proposing to give back to people in the form of tax rebates, at about $800 per adult family member) or $145 billion (that $100 billion, plus another $45 billion in business tax breaks—mostly accelerated deductions for capital investment) bounced around, it sounds like a lot of dough, and you might think it would be a good shot in the arm for an economy that is falling into a dead faint.

But let’s think about it on a micro level.

What would my wife and I do with an extra $1600?

Well, to be honest, that’s not quite one month’s mortgage payment.

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - George W Bush

Much in the same way that US investors were “steered” into rip-off mortgage loans, the entire country has been “steered” into an economic crisis. The question is how to get out of it.

In the subprime loan scandal, unscrupulous brokers conned home buyers with poor credit histories into deals designed to profit lenders and bleed borrowers. Contract “teasers” hid ballooning monthly payments while a lack of regulation allowed the scam to continue unabated. Millions more Americans now face losing their homes.

By David Swanson

Seventy-one members of Congress, all Democrats, most House Members, two Senators, belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. For a couple of years now, the CPC has had a staff person. More recently it created a website http://cpc.lee.house.gov

Since most of the positions generally labeled progressive are backed by either a majority or a large minority of Americans, it certainly seems useful to have at least a small minority in Congress pushing for them. If anything good is ever to come out of Congress, this seems a likely source for it.

The CPC operates from within the Democratic Party, and that party is now in the majority. So, the question arises: what influence does the CPC have with the rest of its party or with Republicans, and what goals will it attempt to achieve?

More beans, another sampling of how we're all gonna go broke under Bush's multi-trillion dollar tab... Amy Goodman interviews Linda Bilmes, Havard professor whose study caused the VA and Pentagon to "re-calculate" how wounded US service personnel are counted.

Hidden Costs of War: Long-Term Price of Providing Veterans Medical Care Could Reach $660 Billion - Over 200,000 soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have been treated at Veterans Affairs medical facilities thus far, with 900,000 still deployed on active duty. A new study from Harvard University predicts that the cost of medical care and compensation benefits for returning veterans will skyrocket once those troops return home... (more)

There's been a lot a big numbers floated by the past few days. Let's review, first the really big one, Smirk's Three Trillion Dollar budget which includes $719 BILLION for the starving military, including almost $300 billion for ongoing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. So how does he plan to pay for this obscene increase in US global military domination? By cutting the budget for Medicare, Medicaid, education, health care and children's programs. What a mean heartless little tyrant our illegitimate Dear MisLeader... (more)

How shameless is George W. Bush and his crew in the White House? How about coming in with the fourth-largest yearly budget deficit in United States history and announcing that it's a major victory? (Based, of course, on inflated deficit estimates previously given that guaranteed the actual number would look better.)

Bush http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060711-1.html " target="_blank">announced today that the mid-year budget review shows that "this economy is growing, federal taxes are rising [sic], and we're cutting the federal deficit faster than we expected" and that the 2006 budget deficit will actually come in at a whopping $296 billion, versus the staggering $423 billion they had floated as a fake estimate.

I should have thought to try this logic with my wife when I came back from YearlyKos in Las Vegas last month. "Honey, I have good news. I only lost $2,000 in Vegas instead of the $10,000 I estimated I would lose."

That wouldn’t fly in my house any more than today's exercise in deceit should be accepted by the American people.

After a brief, profit-taking rally at the end of last week, jittery markets slumped further this week on the comments of the new Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernake, belying the Bush administration's assertion that the economy is strong and outlook is favorable. Speaking to a gaggle of banking suits, Bernake acknowledged that core inflation surpassed levels generally deemed within the comfort zone of most economists, including his. (By definition, "core inflation" excludes two primary expenses of most American families: food and energy.)

A Buzzflash editorial:

But Congressman Henry Waxman -- who along with John Conyers are the two official BuzzFlash "Bulldogs for Justice" in Congress -- discovered that the White House has gone beyond official statements that give them the right -- in their eyes -- to break the law.

Waxman disclosed, with nary a mention by the mainstream media, that Bush is now perfectly content to sign a Constitutionally invalid law -- and likely with knowing forethought. And not only was it just any wrong law, it was the Budget Reconciliation Act for the U.S. Government.