Economic Bailout: Iraq 2.0
With the collapse of the financial system on everybodies’ mind and a palable sense of fear, there is a lot of talk about the Bush Administration pushing the Congress and voters into a major intervention on limited and sketchy information. Sound familiar? People are concerned that this is just like the Iraq war. I discuss this idea in my most recent article for The Diplomatic Courier.
But a few important differences stand out. First, U.S. voters are overwhelmingly against the bailout plan. Congress people are receiving nearly 100 phone calls and letters opposing the plan for every one that is positive. In contrast, when the invasion began in 2003, 72 percent of Americans supported the war, according to the Pew Research Center. To say that the country is being tricked into supporting this action—as many claim was the case with the Iraq invasion—is quite obviously not the case.
Second, unlike Iraq, which was more of an existential threat, the losses in the markets are measurable and very real. Trillions of dollars are being lost; unemployment rising to levels not seen in decades; inflation is cropping up around the globe: officials are desperate to right the ship. The threat of Saddam Hussein was never this real.
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