Jimmy Carter Say What?

The similarities between Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama are eerily similar.

For those of you keeping score, that is not a good thing.

However, personally, if it came down to Carter and Obama I'd pick Carter hands down. Thank God those aren't our choices. Recently, Jimmy Carter slammed the Bush Administration for the current economic crisis in order to throw his "presidential weight" behind the Obama campaign. Here are some interesting quotes from Reuters:

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Former President Jimmy Carter said on Friday the "atrocious economic policies" of the Bush administration had caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"I think it's because of the atrocious economic policies of the Bush administration," said the 84-year-old Democrat, who served in the White House from 1977-1981 during a period of high inflation and energy crisis.

"The economic situation is an entrenched problem. It is going to take years to correct what has been done economically," Carter said, adding he hoped Democrat Barrack Obama would win and immediately improve Washington's image in the world.

Jimmy Carter say what? Where, on God's green earth, does Jimmy Carter have any room to talk about financial issues and the presidency?

I can't believe I am actually wasting time writing this, but someone needs to point out to Jimmy Carter that when it comes to Presidents with lousy economic policies, his Administration still takes the cake no matter how bad things have gotten in the current financial crisis. Under the Carter Administration, inflation skyrocketed into the double digits--reaching 13.5% at the time of the 1980 Presidential campaign. Unemployment was at 7.7% nationwide by 1980 and worse in various industrial pockets. Interest rates were at a shocking 21.5%. Any President who is responsible for such a sorry spectacle has no business lecturing successors on how to set economic policy.

Contrary to Carter, "spending, borrowing and tax cuts" have nothing to do with the current economic crisis. As anyone who hasn't been living in a cave knows, the current economic crisis was brought about by the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977--signed by Jimmy Carter--along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, all of which conspired to introduce Americans to the phenomenon of subprime mortgages. We thus started down the primrose path to offering mortgages to people at risk of not being able to pay those mortgages back. Mortgage-backed securities arose from subprime lending and while it is tempting to blame a lack of regulation for the emergence of MBSs, it has been conclusively demonstrated that deregulation is not the villain in this story. Indeed, opting for regulation--as Carter, with financial lust in his heart, appears so plainly to do--will have a deleterious policy effect.

I realize that Carter wants to obscure a clear examination of his calamitous economic record by trying to get people to dislike George W. Bush and I understand why Carter is resorting to tired shibboleths as he makes the effort. But that shouldn't excuse Carter's rhetorical dishonesty. Carter's Pavlovian answers do nothing to address the current financial crisis and despite the news of the moment, the economic disaster Carter helped bring about does not even remotely look better over time(Pejman Yousefzadeh).