John Crudele
It’s all Monica Lewinsky’s fault.
The former White House intern, a special friend of President Bill Clinton (who was curiously named “Father of the Year” last week by one publicity-seeking, morally tone-deaf organization), was the cause of our financial problems over the past six years.
OK, give me your full attention before you declare me legally insane, because I am half serious about this. You already know the oral history of the case. Lewinsky, then an eager 22-year-old graduate of Lewis & Clark College, got a little confused one day while at the White House. So instead of serving her country above and beyond the call of duty, she serviced Clinton above and below.
And she blew it for all of us.
The facts of the Lewinsky matter started coming out in 1998, and the affair eventually resulted in the impeachment of Clinton in 1999. He whined, he apologized to Hillary, and he maneuvered. And in the end the Senate gave Clinton a pass and let him serve out his term in office.
Clinton eventually made money writing books and doing whatever it is that ex-presidents do. And now Lewinsky is even said to be offering her story to the highest bidder since, I guess, interns-who-serviced-presidents-in-that-way aren’t on much of a career path.
The rest of us wish we had done as well as those two.
Anyone who was a grown-up back in 1998 — and I reluctantly count myself among them — remembers just how disruptive the impeachment was. And those of us who write about financial markets also understood back then the unique danger that came with the first president in 130 years potentially being thrown out of office.
The folks in Washington, in particular, knew the possible problems. The last thing this country needed in the midst of this political confusion was financial chaos. So it’s no wonder that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan — who was also handling the collapse of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management and the effects of financial problems in Russia — kept interest rates exceptionally low throughout the impeachment year and beyond.
The stock market thrived (for a while). The Internet bubble helped some people make lots of money, although others eventually lost fortunes. And — most important to the Lewinsky-is-to-blame thesis that I’m presenting here for the first time — the housing market roared thanks to the generosity of the Fed, which was like the person who put the teakettle on the stove and walked away for too long.
When Osama bin Laden struck in 2001, interest rates were already low because of the impeachment. But the Fed needed to push them down even more to contain any possible financial panic and keep the US economy going despite such a major disruption to the economy.
As cause of woe$, Monica takes the cigar
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As cause of woe$, Monica takes the cigar
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As cause of woe$, Monica takes the cigar
