ELLEN FRANK
Professor of economics at Emmanuel College in Boston and author of the forthcoming book Money Illusions, Frank said today: “Bush’s economic plan is unlikely to create jobs or growth as he claims. His plan centers on giving more money to wealthy investors with the supposition that they will invest this excess windfall in projects which will create jobs and growth. The reality is that wealthy investors are already swimming in money and unable to find sustainable growth avenues for their excess cash…. The terrible job market may squeeze wages, and with proposed tax cuts and federal spending increases on items beneficial to some corporate interests, business profits might recover. But in the meantime, working families are falling further into poverty and debt — quite possibly we are looking at a period of sustained unemployment and job insecurity.”
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DEAN BAKER
Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker said today: “President Bush’s decision to reappoint Alan Greenspan as chair of the Federal Reserve Board is like inviting the captain of the Titanic back for a second round. Greenspan managed to ignore the largest financial bubble in the history of the world, which led to a loss of more than $8 trillion in stock wealth. As a result, the economy remains mired in recession. He continues to ignore a housing bubble, the collapse of which is likely to have even larger repercussions for the economy and the retirement security of tens of millions of baby boomers. He also supports an over-valued dollar that is causing the nation to borrow more than $1.5 billion every day from abroad. The resulting debt is going to impose an enormous burden on our children and grandchildren. In principle, failure is supposed to be punished. In Alan Greenspan’s case, massive failure is continually rewarded.” On a March 16, 2000, Institute for Public Accuracy news release, when the Nasdaq was more than three times what it is today, Baker argued that the stock market bubble was due to burst. [See: www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR031600.htm] More Information

GERTRUDE GOLDBERG
In January 1992, Goldberg co-authored an article in the journal Social Work entitled “Disengulfing the Peace Dividend,” which challenged former White House chief of staff John Sununu’s assertion that “a short, successful war would be pure political gold for the president — would guarantee his reelection.” The article also criticized the “strategy of creating a budgetary deficit to discredit social spending.” Goldberg, the chair of the National Jobs for All Coalition and director of the doctoral program in social welfare at Adelphi University, said today: “The official unemployment rate is 5.8 percent, which comes to 8.4 million unemployed people. As bad as that is, the reality is far worse. An additional 4.7 million people are forced to work part-time because they can’t find a full-time job. About 5 million people want jobs but aren’t counted as unemployed because they aren’t actively looking for work. These people will suffer even further as Bush’s proposed budget includes the elimination of school lunches for over 2 million low-income children, reduced health coverage for nearly 14 million children and lowering of already lean food stamp benefits.”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167