I’m often asked how quickly will things return back to normal? Well, one thing is for sure — as beaten up as the economy has gotten in the last couple of years, it may take a while.

However, in my opinion, part of the speed of the economic recovery depends on whether Obama listens to former President Bush’s advice in a speech from this past week.

In a speech on Oct. 22 at the Montreal Board of Trade, Bush urged the Obama administration to “sell the government’s stakes in the banks and automakers as quickly as possible.” He went on to argue that “only private companies can spark an economic rebound.”

I must say that I agree with him there. A government-run company will never pick things up like a private company would do. Bush was a businessman before he became president, and it’s comments like this when that experience shows.

Bush went on to say that “U.S. taxpayers are extremely unlikely to earn any return on the $700 billion government program to invest in banks and other companies.”

Neil Barofsky, the TARP watchdog, seems to agree with Bush when he told Congress that “recouping the billions of dollars given to AIG, GM, and Chrysler is far from certain.”

Barofsky added that, “The $50 billion set aside for helping struggling homeowners lower their mortgage payments will yield no direct return.”

Back to Bush. He stated that TARP was created to be a temporary program, and he compared it to a body with a faint heart beat. The government was giving it some blood. However, he stated that the thought was “when you get back on your feet, you can find cheaper money and give us back the taxpayer money with a nice return.”

I too, agree with Bush when he says that the government can’t lead us out of the mess we’re in. But as he so aptly put it, “The private sector is the only engine for economic growth.”

If Obama realizes this, then we will come out of this recession sooner rather than later. If Obama fails to see this, then it will only prolong the onset of the economic recovery.

If Obama heeds Bush’s advice, then at first foreign currencies will continue to flourish over the U.S. dollar. However, in time, as the U.S. recovers and is able to raise interest rates, the dollar may very well play a bit of “catch up” with these other countries.

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