Reading the headlines of major newspapers, one might not realize that the United States' economy is in a state of rapid decline. While stories about Iraq and Wynona Ryder grab the top headlines of many newspapers, stories about the faltering stock market and unemployment rate are buried.
The economy is slumping, and President George W. Bush is busier drafting war plans than plans for economic recovery. The administration is ignoring the peaceful protest marches across the globe and the monetary message of investors both here and abroad. Since the inception of the Bush administration, the stock market has plummeted 32 percentage points, the greatest drop-off since that of Herbert Hoover's presidency, which led to the Great Depression. The Great Depression lifted when the United States joined World War II and jobs created by the war-time economy went to millions of Americans and funded national recovery efforts to boost the economy out of the depression.
The rhetoric of war being good for an economy is still thrown around today, partially based on that example. The problem, however, is that it is inherently false in the case of Iraq. World War II helped the economy because it was a national effort, the mass production of blue-collar war material was necessary, and the sheer size of the battle created a driving need to replenish supplies for all countries involved. For Bush's war on Iraq, all of our weapons are already constructed; the size of Bush's war - and the cause of the war - won't build the kind of desperate need for materials and goods that helped make war an industry during WWII.
Bush is forgetting the people he was elected to serve. Bush has proceeded in his campaign against Iraq, despite warnings from Bush figures like Alan Greenspan, the chair of the Federal Reserve. Greenspan's worries extend to the problems Bush has had with foreign investors. The president has alienated investors from France, China, Russia and all across the Arab world with his foreign policy. With an impending war on Iraq, prices of oil have gone up in response to a "war premium." Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan have all seen the United States use their countries as bases for troops on their way to Iraq; their governments are offended and have pulled billions of dollars from our stock markets.
Bush has tried to brush the United States' economic problems under the rug by drawing attention to his war efforts, but the American people must realize how dire the nation's economic situation is and demand action. With Republican control of both houses, it will be interesting to see how this issue is treated. Hopefully, they will not follow the example of the president and drop the interests of their constituents by pushing for a war on Iraq that will further damage the economy.
The United States' financial woes need to be addressed now. Bush cannot assume that measures that were successful in 1919 will save our economy in 2002; he must listen to a voice of economic reason and reconsider his primary focus by dealing with domestic problems affecting the American people.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
