Bob Menendez Quotes
My first priority is growing this economy in the long term, and stimulating it in the short term.
Menendez, Robert. "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." Congressional Record, vol. 155, 10 Feb. 2009.
The Progressive article was an interview with Movie Director and Screenwriter Oliver Stone who told the interviewer that he had learned of this quotation when he did his research for his film, South of the Border where he had several interviews with President Kirchner.
Europe was still suffering from the economic effects of the Great Recession.
Iceland's economy collapsed in the Meltdown of 2008. Their largest banks failed completely as they had engaged in the same kind of risky investments as the American banks had. Their government however did not have the assets to bail their banks out. So they let the banks fail and protected the small depositors with their limited assets. They then devalued their currency drastically, making their fishing and other products a great bargain for other nations of the world and though humiliated the Islanders started getting jobs as demand for Islandic exports grew. Some Icelanders who owned companies were making a great deal of money. Taxes were raised for high income citizens. To prevent the money being taken out of the country and invested so that the jobs would not benefit Icelanders or the earnings were not as taxable in Iceland, the nation imposed Capital Controls—no money was allowed to be taken out of the country except small amounts for business travel expenses. Iceland recovered rapidly and by 2015, at which point the Minister of Finance felt that the country was losing more than it was gaining, so it was time to end the Capital Controls.
Robert Menendez is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2006. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Jon Corzine, and later served as Chair of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 2013 to 2015, and again since 2021.
