[evilgenius]

First of all, without the corporations and banks there is no economy. That was why GW and Hank Paulson had to start the investment side bailouts which Obama had to continue. Trick is, the bailouts did not have to be done the way they were. They were only done that way because nobody, and I mean nobody, was clever enough at the time to figure out a better way. Stalling was not an option. Bush tried to stall and as a result we came within one weekend of not having working ATMs and bank tellers everywhere hiding behind their bank counters in fear of having to tell one more person there was no money!

That being said, my candidate for how the bailouts should have proceeded beyond the initial stages is to have reformed housing loans immediately. I would have imposed a 4 or 5 percent rate on all real estate loans outstanding. I would have used the bailout money to make up the difference between the new much lower rate and the old high rates. The difference would have been most pronounced in the Sub-Prime category. The banks would have received, for a time, the same monthly payments as the original contracts stipulated. The borrowers would all be paying less. During this holiday I would have begun an inspection of all loans to determine what was going on. Those who could pay, but only at a much lower rate would get refinanced to a lower rate. The banks would have to take the hit. Those who were paying usurious rates, but who could somehow afford them, would be refinanced to the highest rate deemed not to be usurious. Again, the banks would have to take the hit. Those who had no business receiving a loan would default. Yet again the banks would take the hit, only this time within the repossession system which when not overwhelmed makes a good firestop. When the period was done those who had good loans would simply go back to their old loan structures. Those people would not have that extra money to spend each month anymore, but neither would they be in an impossible position.

This is something like what Obama is proposing insofar as housing is considered. He is still not willing to include everyone. At this point, also, doing this would come too late to stem losses that have now occurred. The horse has bolted from the barn as they say.

I also have to bring something up which I know sounds racist, but is actually an economic point. There needs to be a citizenship mandate issued to all contractors working on stimulus projects. It does no good to simply give contracts out to the lowest bidder. They have to go to the lowest bidder that hires only American citizens. If they don't do something like that then the pay issued to the workers on those jobs will flood to Mexico and other places south of the border. It will not stay in the local economies where it is needed to provide stimulus. I know this stipulation would still not do anything about keeping money from flowing from one region to another, workers could still live in one part of the country and only temporarily migrate to another part thus sending most of what they earn from a region where a project has been issued for reasons of necessary stimulus to a region where stimulus is maybe not so necessary. At least this way stimulus money would remain within the greater US economy. Alternatively, we could keep the labor situation the same and tax relevant money transfers to foreign countries so significantly so as to provide an extreme disincentive to shuffle money from local economies to other places.

Last, for now, the US corporate tax rate should be lowered to 15%. Do you people realize that because of off-shoring most big companies pay zero? Can you see why the big derivatives bubble has to be kept afloat with so much corporate money needing to travel to so many tax havens off-shore? Take away the high corporate tax rates which provide such an incentive to off-shore at the same time as you constrict the derivatives slush that enables such easy wealth transfer and maybe the government has more income to pay for what it needs to without anything else needing to be done, aye! Institute an alternative minimum corporate tax which includes off-shored money in order to catch cheats. Don't overdo it. Don't cause corporations to fail because of revenge. Don't underdo it either. Also, increase personal income tax for anyone making more than 5 million a year to 90%. Keep the rates the same as they are now below 5 million a year.

Greater systemic reform than this is necessary. This is enough, for this forum space, to digest for now.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('beamofthewave', 'I')t is not a Ponzi scheme. The scheme is the constant welfare to the corporations and the banks and I am sick of it. The mooch class has got to go!

[peeker01]

One of the more powerful and successful businesses in the world is insurance. Life, property, even
health. How do they do it year after year? They invest the premiums. Of course the last few
years have been rough for everybody, the principle is still sound.

That's why Social Security is in trouble, at least partly. It's hand to mouth now, because the fund
has been raided by government. Payroll taxes are being used to pay benefits, rather than making
investments. This is the exact definition of a Ponzi Scheme. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme
The FAA used to have a huge trust fund. It has also been raided into the general fund.

The government must streamline and work smarter.

[AgentR11]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', 'A')lso, increase personal income tax for anyone making more than 5 million a year to 90%. Keep the rates the same as they are now below 5 million a year.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrestonSturges', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('beamofthewave', 'I')t is not a Ponzi scheme. The scheme is the constant welfare to the corporations and the banks and I am sick of it. The mooch class has got to go!

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Expatriot', 'T')he one-person one-vote concept has a lot of emotional appeal. But it's failed. Time to try something else, even if it's a variation on something that's been done before.

[Plantagenet]

The polls are out following Obama's "Jobs" campaign speech.

Gallup has Obama's approval rating going down another 2 points.

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AgentR11', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', 'A')lso, increase personal income tax for anyone making more than 5 million a year to 90%. Keep the rates the same as they are now below 5 million a year.