A Plan to Jump-Start Economy With No Instruction Manual

[groovedaddy]

WASHINGTON — The fresh evidence on Friday of the economy’s downward spiral focused even more attention on two questions: Is the stimulus package being pushed by President-elect Barack Obama big enough? And will the component parts being assembled by Congress provide the most bang for the buck?

With the Federal Reserve having just about reached the limit of how much it can help the economy with cuts in the interest rate, Washington’s ability to end or at least limit the recession depends in large part on the effectiveness of the big package of additional spending and tax cuts that Mr. Obama has made the centerpiece of his agenda.

And with the economy facing what now seems sure to be the sharpest downturn since the 1930s, the financial system balky and the government facing towering budget deficits, economists and policy makers acknowledge that there is no playbook.

“We have very few good examples to guide us,” said William G. Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the liberal-leaning research organization. “I don’t know of any convincing evidence that what has been proposed is going to be enough.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/10/washington/10stimulus.html?th&emc=th

[jody]

1. No Instruction Manual and no plan for businesses so diverse that no single plan will work. Enough

already, let the wealthy SOBs go bankrupt and someone will buy the business if it has potential for profits.

That's no different than my farm.

If I go bankrupt, someone will buy my land and equipment and continue farming if there is a market for crops that can grow on my land.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Nice. With a little help from his friends, Obama has turned the question

from one of whether there should be a stimulus package to one of whether his proposal is audacious enough. "Jeez, folks (heh-heh) do you really think I oughtta be putting more money into that package? Well, OK, if you're really sure it's the right thing to do."

The Obama finesse at work again.

[jody]

3. "finesse"? IMO it's ignorance and Obama has lots of company from both parties. On another issue

DoD is finding that strategy/tactics with limited success in Iraq are useless in Afghanistan.

See A rougher road in Afghanistan

Bottom line is IMO our leaders are relatively clueless on what to do to solve our economic and foreign policy problems.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. My theory is that Obama (rightly) wants to put more money into the

recovery. (Preferably not just as bailouts to the big money guys, but public works, health care, etc.) & is maneuvering them into pushing him further up the scale.

[jody]

5. I object to spending tax dollars UNLESS there are realistic plans for recovery and each industry and

business are different.

I also oppose leaving the same top management structure in place.

I demand accountability for every penny spent.

I also want corporations stripped of every corporate personhood right that SCOTUS has given them since Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886).

Corporations are not mentioned in our Constitution.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. All of that sounds reasonable to me.

All I'm asking for is a new New Deal, tailored to the times--and oriented a little further leftward than FDR. The point has been made that FDR saved Capitalism. That's not necessary in my book. Anything that's too big to fail is too big to exist as a private enterprise.

[jody]

7. Looks like we are kindred spirits. IMO government should prevent any private business from getting

so big that our economy is imperiled if it goes bankrupt.

Allowing that to happen lets inefficient, bloated corporations blackmail taxpayers just as is happening today.

That's business under the rule "heads corporations win, tails taxpayers lose".

[Jackpine Radical]

10. The biggest lie ever sold to the American public is

that government-run operations are necessarily bad or inefficient. Medicare is actually very cost-effective. The post office was a wonderful institution before Nixon messed with its structure. FDR's public works programs were so cleanly run that independent auditors never turned up any significant instances of fraud or corruption. Anyplace there is a natural monopoly (power companies, phone companies, etc.), the industry ought to be nationalized.

I wrote elsewhere about some of my ideas on how to structure business:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Jackpine%20Radical/82

[jody]

12. Thanks, I enjoyed reading your essay. n/t

[.... callchet ....]

8. Here's the play book for free

First cancel all inauguration festivities and get to work on massive spending, massive taxes, massive overhaul of banking, massive overhaul of Wall Street. Talks with all world leaders to get on the same playing field with tariffs, environment and world debt. Start emergency food, shelter and medical programs here so that no one will be desperate and then install hope.

[BridgeTheGap]

9. Stark, raving PINKO!!! nt ;->

[.... callchet ....]

11. The cloud of

of doom when there is such a rosy outlook. Or the way out from the economic tsunami. Where are you looking at it from ?

[BridgeTheGap]

13. Is it time to "re-invent the wheel?" or some such...n.t

[.... callchet ....]

14. My Bad

I thought UHC meant coverage for everybody. After researching I am now under the understanding that it will be made affordable for everybody.

Does that mean that the poor and indigent still will not get health care? If it cost $10,000 a year and it is reduced to $5,000, then most of the

people who couldn't afford it before still can't afford it.

[angryfirelord]

15. The issue at hand

is deciding where the mony is going to do. If Obama is intent on adding another trillion dollars to the deficit, the worst thing he can possibly do is to continue the Bush administration's policy of handing money out to corporations. It has to be direct and has to help stimulate the middle and lower classes immediately (such as UHC), not wait for it to trickle down. Keynes is probably rolling over in his grave right about now.

[earth mom]

16. No, the stimulus package isn't big enough. How about some REAL money that people

can actually DO something with? Obama's plan of giving less that $100 bucks a month back in taxes is nothing but chump change. :thumbsdown: