Monday, August 09, 2004
Call Them Pessimists
CONSERVATIVE THINK TANK RAISES ECONOMY FEARS. Shifting economic conditions in the US are causing some respected conservatives to start voicing economic concerns. Here's what MarketWatch.com reported Sunday: "'A whiff of stagflation is in the air,' and the negative impact on corporate earnings and stock prices 'could be ugly,' said John Makin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. Some economists are outraged at Makin, saying he's exaggerating current conditions by using 'stagflation,' a term coined during the malaise of the 1970s to describe the combination of slower growth and higher inflation. Nevertheless, many experts have acknowledged the U.S. economy is downshifting and inflation pressures are rising." Now -- before you start bashing AEI as some left-wing apologists -- AEI is the conservative think tank home to Robert Bork, Newt Gingrich and others.
