GW seems to think that an increase in corporate profits (and thus the compensation of all his CEO friends) compensates for the huge deficits his administration has been running.   Well that just ain’t so! 

The whole bases of the GDP is meaningless.  The true measure of the economic condition of the nation is the standard of living of the mass of the people.  There is no measure that gives us that information.  The only thing that comes close is the income gap between the top 5% and the rest of the population, and that gap has continued to grow and grow year after year. 

The Free Trade agreements that the US has entered into were sold to us as a way to lift the standard of living of people in 3rd world nations and open markets to US exports.  That is why I believe in the concept of free trade IN PRINCIPLE.  But the American People (with the exception of the top 5%) have become the victims of what is CALLED Free Trade, not it’s beneficiaries.  The only ones to benefit have been GWB’s CEO friends.  Instead of lifting the standard of living for others, the current free trade system has only made the poor poorer, the rich richer, and middle class smaller.