Comments on: 5 Leaders Who Spent Their Countries Into The Ground

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:19:59 +0000

OK – not a Bush fan either, but I think that Saddam Hussein should be on this list. The palaces that he built for himself are gaudy, expensive and useless, while the people of Iraq lived in squalor.

By: Ralph Beatty

Ralph Beatty — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:35:34 +0000

Interesting ones that are missing. Ludwig II of Bavaria bankrupted Bavaria with his castle building. He had plans for at least 5 and built, among others, Schloss Neuschwanstein. It is a Romanesque castle that was used as the model for the castle in the Disney film Sleeping Beauty. I am distantly related to him and with a good plague, I could conceivably inherit it (LOL).
Take this one with a grain of salt. The successors to this guy (the ones that wrote the history) didn’t like him much. Shah Jahan build the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his wife and had intended to build a mirror copy in black marble for himself when the people that were hungry because he was spending poorly, rose up and overthrew him.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:22:09 +0000

Everyone on this thread claiming that recent U.S. presidents can compare to Nero and Caligula should look at this -
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/05/the-net-worth-of-the-us-presidents-washington-to-obama/57020/
Itâ€™s interesting to see that Bill Clintonâ€™s small fortune equals that of George H. W. and George W. Bushâ€™s combined. I thought the Bush family was uber-rich from crazy warmongering and oil profits? Itâ€™s also worth pointing out that father and son Bush made much of their money through profitable business ventures, while Clinton and Obama made their money by writing books about themselves. Quite the stark contrast.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:17:09 +0000

I’m no Bush fan, but he’s got nothing on Alan Garcia of Peru’s first term (1985-1990). In 5 years of presidency, he had a cumulative of 2,200,200% inflation.

By the end of his term, national reserves were a negative $900 million.

20 years later, the country is still working to crawl out of the hole.

From Wiki – GarcÃa’s presidency left the country with hyperinflation, isolated from the international financial community, with negative reserves of US$900 million, continuous subversive activities by the Shining Path, great increase in poverty levels and an electric train multi-million investment in Lima that was never finished.

Oh and remember I said his first term? He’s president again.

By: Rod T

Rod T — Wed, 26 May 2010 12:33:03 +0000

Bush hatred – so 2008. Grow up, move on. The list doesn’t work for me. Caligula and Nero spent alot of money, basically inheirited from Caligula’s grandfather Tiberius’s fiscal policies that resulted in surpluses. Tiberius himself was reviled for being a miser. Rome lasted another four centuries, not exactly spent into the ground.
The Sun King built alot, but the financial strains caused by his successor’s support of the American Revolution had more to do with the summoning of the Estates General than did a previous generation’s building project.

By: old hippy chick

old hippy chick — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:57:36 +0000

All logic aside, George W Bush ALWAYS gave me the heebie jeebies every time he opened his mouth, or I looked at his picture….He just looks like a liar, and talks like a liar… I understand this isn’t ‘logical’, but it IS the way I feel…

By: Mindymoo

Mindymoo — Wed, 26 May 2010 09:12:20 +0000

Amen, Duh. A-freaking-men. I’ve been thinking for quite some time now that we won’t be able to even try to turn this mess around for decades, if ever.

By: Duh

Duh — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:10:00 +0000

W’s “war” and tax breaks ran a hegemonic state to the ground, unleashed a war between muslim sunnis and shias, destabilized world economy and created a mess that the entire world has to clean up.
No idiot out there in the history can beat that.

By: anon

anon — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:46:03 +0000

I just want to get the facts straight. I’m a moderate btw.

The Intelligence agencies of America did not agree that there were WMD’s in Iraq. If you read any books on this, you will learn that there was only one informant that the CIA had that stated Iraq had WMD’s. He failed multiple polygraphs. The Bush Administration Ignored this. Think about how much money contractors are getting from the war that are in bed with the white house? Haliburton Charges the US government 100 dollars for every load of laundry it washes. 45,000 contractors in Iraq, more than any other conflict.

By: Erik

Erik — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:22:22 +0000

I don’t think George Bush belongs in this list, not because I am any sort of supporter of his (I am not), but because his situation does not match the parameters of this story.
First, the list includes leaders who made purchase mainly for personal use; and second, nations who were basically brought to the ground by those purchases.
The U.S., despite its current woes, is hardly near bankruptcy. Also, the “purchases” were hardly of a personal nature, unless one attributes the desire to attack Iraq a personal desire to finish Daddy’s incomplete job.