Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is a U.S. politician and businessman, who was the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006.

Now look at the political and economic situation in the US during 1975-1977 and today. Things in common:

• war overseas: Vietnam war ended in 1975, actually. Not sure about Rumsfeld’s role in that; currently – Iraq
• inflation
• Mideast conflicts/concerns over oil
• expensive oil
• recession: well, officially there’s no recession in the US right now, but 2/3 of surveyed Americans expect one within a year
• gold price is rising

Of course a lot of things are different, but history repeats itself because people fundamentally don’t change, especially when it’s the same people. I’m not implying it’s all Rumsfeld’s fault, but he must be working with some of the same people he worked with during his first term as the Sec. of Defense. This is looking more and more like the proverbial Good Ol’ Boys Club.

I’m going to read up on what exactly happened with the stock market and economy back then. It’ll be interesting to see if the ‘story’ plays out the same way this time.