Recession and Bush

I would like to bring to your attention some aspects of the economy that seem to have eluded President Bush and his advisers.

--If we wish to see an improvement in our economy, we must stop exporting U.S. jobs to foreign countries. Every dollar of our trade deficit is a dollar of wages lost to foreigners. Latest example? Zenith closes a plant in Missouri and moves its operations to Mexico. The result--1,500 lost U.S. jobs! And we have the President to thank for this.

--Thanks to Reaganomics and 11 years of Republican administrations, we now have a top-heavy economy, in which there is too much for capital investment, but not enough for consumer spending. Want proof? Look at the Dow Jones Industrial Index. Do we have an economy to support the 3,000 level in the Dow?

Incidentally, this may be a good time to lay to rest a myth that everybody somehow believes! We now know that lower oil prices are not going to pull this economy out of this recession. Oil is selling around $20 a barrel as compared with $35 before the Gulf War, but where are those jobs Secretary of State James Baker was talking about?

ROBERT HOUSTON, Newport Beach