Letters to the Editor
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The excerpt is jibberish
I am a great admirer of Mr. Stiglitz's work over the years, particularly in concise nature of his critique of the IMF and World Bank development programs, which he oversaw.
However, there is a fallacy of logic here: As a result that Bush's tax cuts were not good stimulus, "Therefore, the job of economic stimulation fell to the Federal Reserve Board"... This is not an A -> B implication whatsoever.
In fact, some may recall, at the time, many an economic analyst commented that the fed was too frequently interfering in interest rates. While the full effects of this could not and would not be known, there was suggestion that the Fed was attempting to drive the market far too aggressively. Ostensibly, no doubt, Bush would have approved, but if the swine at the Fed were cowtowed by the administration and not their knowledge, the crisis as described here, a closed cause and effect system, was the province of the Fed.
I am disappointed that Mr. Stiglitz saw a chance to place all the blame eggs in the President's already (rightfully) cumbersome basket. As an overseer of the frequently disasterous Structural Adjustment Programs, Stigitz is well aware that economic dogmatists make their fair of horrible mistakes intentionally.