El Opinador Compulsivo

Alan, refutado por Dick:

The Fed chairman told the president-elect and our team that America faced the real possibility of a recession in the wake of the collapse of the late 1990s technology sector bubble. Alan's prediction proved correct: In the final months of the Clinton administration, the nation began an economic slowdown that turned into a recession.

Another crisis was looming, though none of us knew it at the time. Less than eight months into our administration the nation came under terrorist attack. The events of 9/11 are the defining moment of the era from the standpoint of national security; they were equally significant from an economic perspective. Aimed at our country's financial sector, the attacks were followed by the suspension of stock trading, the closing of stores and shopping malls and the cancellation of thousands of flights. In the three-and-a-half months between 9/11 and Christmas, nearly a million Americans lost their jobs.

The combined effects of recession and national emergency could have been devastating for America's economy. Yet President Bush's tax cuts--following through on a promise he had made to the voters--resulted in a shallower recession, a faster recovery, and a platform for growth that remains sturdy to this day. The fact is that in a time of unprecedented challenge, the United States has experienced nearly six years of uninterrupted economic growth and added more than eight million new jobs since August 2003--more than all other major industrialized nations combined.