While Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan warned that "substantial and excessive deficits" could harm the economy, US President George W. Bush heard more encouraging words from hand-picked economists.
Bush invited private economists to reassure him -- and to try to persuade the country -- that the deep tax cuts he engineered are helping create jobs at a time when the unemployment rate is at a nine-year high of 6.4 percent.
The economists, who included two Reagan White House officials, told Bush what he wanted to hear -- "how the growth and tax package has had such a very positive impact on the economy," Commerce Secretary Donald Evans said.
Democrats argued otherwise.
"This administration's economic policy is a failure, a total failure," said Congressman Dick Gephardt of Missouri, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. "This is about as dismal and poor a performance in economics as I can remember in the history of this country."
Republicans worry that a sour economy will weaken Bush's political support and undercut his re-election hopes.
The economists summoned to the White House said they saw no short-term harm in the deficits, which the administration projects will soar to a record US$455 billion this year and US$475 billion next year.
"I think the deficits at this point are having a positive impact," Martin Feldstein, an economics professor at Harvard University who was an adviser to President Ronald Reagan, told reporters after meeting Bush. He said the deficits have to be controlled in the long term.
"If there is any time in which one ought to have a deficit, it is a time where there is economic slack and a job market that is not recovering the way we would like to see it recover," Princeton University economist Burton Malkiel said.
Greenspan, in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, cautioned that long-term deficits could be harmful.
"There is no question that if you run substantial and excessive deficits over time you are draining savings from the private sector, and other things equal, you do clearly undercut the growth rate of the economy," Greenspan said.
He also warned of economic problems the country will face in the next decade when the 75 million baby boomers begin retiring.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique