[Fish2006]

I don't think its a conspiracy to devalue the dollar, hell, its right out there in the open.

Of course economic cycles happen. The problem is that by having cheap money policies that had a nice short term effect that the current administration pushed to recover from the .com crash (rising house prices, easier access to credit for everyone), we just created another bubble.

Bush caused it, though not on purpose (I dont give him that much credit - he isn't that smart). By stripping the SEC and other watchdogs of the budget they need to enforce, say, mortgage standards, it created the conditions that resulted in homeless people being able to get loans on million dollar homes.

Bush and his friends did that not because they are evil, but because they are short term oriented. What they did to get the economy going in 2003-04 was burn the house down in order to heat it. Works for awhile, but to say the least it is unsustainable.

Now, as for the terrorism thing, I might even grant that, in the very short term, the torture our enemies in Guantanamo thing might have worked. Again, in the short term. In the long term though, when the camps close, and some of the prisoners make it back home (which is already happening), you create an entire generation of radicals with a cause to rally behind. There is always a risk for terrorism, there is simply too much open borders on a sea, air, and water basis to ever protect you, especially as technology advances and the tools for one whack job to kill an outsized number of people increases.

I don't know what the long term solution to that problem is but I would guess that imprisoning the enemy indefinitely and torturing them, thus, creating scores of radicals and giving more people more reasons to think terrorism is ok - is probably not part of it.

Already, we have given other countries with suspect motives, like Russia, a golden ticket to engage in wars of choice. By setting an example on the world stage that gives the green light to unilateralism, how can we then go say "we can do it, but you, Russia, can't".

What Barack is doing to help is:

a.) Rally the dollar by taking money out of the economy. Additional taxes on incomes of $250k+ will do that.
b.) Put real money into windmills, solar, and yes, new drilling. Basically, the Pickens plan. Some of it will probably piss off the far left wing, so he talks about it less, but rest assured, it will probably happen.
c.) Put restrictions on leverage that our banking institutions can take on. This creates less air for financial bubbles, because hedge funds operating in the context of companies like Bear Stearns can't borrow money at 100x of what they have chasing returns. Having that much leverage in the hands of traders, rather than actual businesses, misallocates capital by putting it into whatever herd mentality says is going up, rather than in the hands of entrepeneurs who can actually put it to move productive uses. Notice the lack of VC money in the last 7 years? I have.

You can starve the Russian Bear, Islamofacist, and Hugo Chavez by taking the money out of oil, and moving it towards technology, drug research, medical research, and other things that actually contribute towards the common good. It isn't that complicated.