3/4     the economy is on its way to a robust recovery!  hail bush!!
        \_ the economy is recovering.  as much as I despise the previous
           president, he did nothing to kill the economy, he did nothing to
           make it great, he did nothing either way.  neither did bush.  the
           feds don't fully understand how the economy even works and the
           president, whomever it might be at any moment, has near zero
           influence on it in the short term.
           \_ Bush's effect on the economy was to make a strong stand against
              terrorism and have success in the military operations, which
              improved consumer confidence.
              \_ Consumers were already spending like mad even through the
                 worst of it.  --voted for Bush but won't make up stuff
           \_ so who has the most effect on the economy? -clueless
                \_ yer mom.  the market crash was caused when she raised her
                   rates
                \_ greed, when enuf fools will keep the rally going more fools
                   will jump in, if enuf fools want to crash the market to
                   lower stock prices, more fools will short to crash the
                   market
              \_ Alan Greenspan probably has the most influence (in terms
                 of individuals). Other than Greenspan, its probably the
                 big banks/investment firms (JP Morgan, Chase, Citicorp,
                 Morgan Stanley, etc.)
                 \_ Unfortunately, Greenspan loses out to world events,
                    wars, political strife, terrorists, and act of God.
                    \_ Can anyone help me with my enron stock? --God
                       \_ I don't think so.  Swap your enron for my wbvn?
                          \_ Or Be.
              \_ The nerds did.  They created the tech boom, and also the
                 internet boom and bust.
                 \_ i met a guy on greenspan's staff. trust me: those
                    guys are nerds too.
                 \_ nerds didn't make the boom and bust.  Stanfurd farmers
                    did.  I met exactly one other Cal person working for
                    tech companies in the last 7 years.  I suspect everyone
                    from Cal (except me) is either going on to post-BA/BS
                    or is now farming pot in bulk somewhere in the outback.
                    \_ 7 years and only one other Cal grad?  Where have
                       you been working?  I've worked 7 yrs and I've
                       worked with 6 Cal grads.
                    \_ I graduated in 97 and I've worked with dozens of cal
                       grads at cisco and sun.