Countdown until Zer0 and his administration leaves office: 476 days as of October 1, 2011.
Posted on 10/01/2011 5:55:26 PM PDT by blam
HERE'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE ECONOMY... (And How To Fix It)
Henry Blodget
Oct. 1, 2011, 11:14 AM
The United States is in a very tough spot, economically and politically.
The 25-year debt-fueled boom of 1982-2007 has ended, and it has left the country with a stagnant economy, massive debts, high unemployment, huge wealth inequality, an enormous budget deficit, and a sense of entitlement engendered by a half-century of prosperity.
After decades of instant gratification, Americans have also come to believe that all problems can be solved instantly, if only the right leaders are put in charge and the right decisions are made. And so our government has devolved into a permanent election campaign, in which incumbents blame each other for the current mess, and challengers promise change.
The trouble is that our current problems cannot be solved with a simple fix. They also cannot be solved quickly. It took 25 years for us to get to this point, and it will likely take us at least a decade or two to work our way out of it, even if we make the right decisions.
So it is time that we began to face reality.
THE PROBLEM: TOO MUCH DEBT
The biggest debt binge in US history, by a mile. Four years ago, when the debt-fueled boom ended and the economy plunged into recession, most economists and politicians misdiagnosed the problem.
They thought we were having just another post-War recession—a serious recession, yes, but a cyclical one, a recession that easy money, government stimulus, and a return of "confidence" could fix.
A handful of economists, meanwhile, argued that the recession was actually fundamentally different—a "balance sheet" recession resulting from a quarter-century-long debt-binge, one that would take a decade or more to fix.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Communist China has tariffs, and rafts of official and unofficial measures closing their own market to foreign competition.
Working pretty well for them...
I read the article. I need to read more articles like that. Articles that tell me exactly what I need to know. What do I need to know? How to fix the the economy. So I read the article and it told me how to fix the economy. The article said we need to build lots of bridges. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the articles in upcoming days.
Uh....isn’t this the same Henry Blodgett who helped create the Internet bubble? It is. Now, he’s trying to do pennance, I guess.
We need a leader like Winston Churchill—someone who will tell it like it is—Blood sweat and tears! End entitlements! Cut back pensions to a survival rate (easy to do—inflate the money —we can all be millionaires). Full employment should be a goal. Kick out illegals by sealing the border with a “Berlin Wall” and a whole new military outfit—the Border Guard (Like the coast guard on land) Build a chain of forts of the border—NO ONE CROSSES save at a few stations where they can be monitored. Anyone hiring an illegal—10 years in prison ! Seize all foreign owned
companies operating in USA—No More BP—No more Hundai or Toyotas built in USA—Let Americans build them and make the profits. Don’t let ANY foreign cars come into the usa without a 100% tariff (like in Japan). Tariffs on everything that comes in to cut the profits from companies that take factories overseas. Bring back the draft—all 18 to 20 year olds must serve the state in some way—as park rangers, cops, CCC boys and Girls, or soldiers and sailors (BUT none would be asked to serve overseas unless there was a declared war). Prisoners must be put to work—chain gangs to rebuild the railroads—no more comfortable prisons just hard work. Break the backs of the Unions—check them out for corruption and harshly deal with it. Voter fraud should be life in prison or death. Terrorists need to be cracked down upon—No Moslems in the USA Army—can’t trust them. Should be sent to new settlements in Alaska—to work in gold mines. The nation must stop being easy on people. If we don’t fix things now—drastic plans like the one I have outlined will be forced by others upon us! A little pain now or a whole lot later.
We are frighteningly timid and naive, about what is happening.
How did America ever become a superpower? Not this way, that’s for certain.
We don’t even look out for our own interests. It is mind-boggling how unwilling otherwise geo-strategically savvy conservatives are to simply open their eyes and see what is happening right in front of them. All around them.
Our nation is in free-fall, yet we parrot worn talking points from another age, and far difference circumstances.
If we had acted this way vs. the Soviet Union, we would have lost.
Nope, it isn’t. What China has is a large population that is lean and hungry and willing to work for a lot less than what American workers are willing to work for. Correlation does not equal causation.
The Fix!!!
There recently was an article in the St. Petersburg, FL. Times. The Business Section Asked readers for ideas on: "How Would You Fix the Economy?"
I think this guy nailed it!
Dear Mr. President, please find below my suggestion for fixing America's economy.
Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.
You can call it the "Patriotic Retirement Plan:"
There are about 40 Million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece, severance for early retirement! With the following Stipulations:
1) They MUST Retire! Forty million job openings… Unemployment Fixed!
2) They Must buy a new American made Car. Forty million cars ordered… U.S. Auto Industry fixed!
3) They MUST either buy a house, or pay off their mortgage… Housing Crisis fixed!
It can't get any easier than that!!
P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their damn taxes!!
And while 'our' DC Reps and Senators are at it, change the law and make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed, pronto!
Too many people working for government making way too much money doing very little! Cut out obsolete or superfluous departments, like Herman Cain said, eliminate the EPA! Drill here drill now! I’m sick of career politicians, aren’t you? Let’s trim time Congress a max of three terms for the House, and two for the Senate! Ever wonder how they go in on a shoe string and come out with a pot of gold? They are supposed to be working for the country, not for themselves!
IT is time that the people wake up to the fact that green is Red! We are not mindless cattle to be herded this way and that! We are The PEOPLE! Our Almighty God inspired our sacred documents for a Godly people Must I say once again, “Without God there can be no America”!? And that is exactly why they are trying to get rid of Him!
We need an astute as well as a Godly man in the Oval Office!
1. Government must be streamlined substantially. That means every Federal, state and local government agency must be aggressively audited for overlapping bureaucracy, agency bloat and obsolete/unneeded regulations and we must at minimum cut down the size of government 30% now, with a goal of 50% or more within circa four years.
2. Income taxation needs to drastically overhauled (and eventually phased out) to reduce yearly compliance costs and encourage more savings and investment in the USA overall. This means implementing the Steve Forbes no-loophole 17% flat-rate income tax starting the 2012 tax year, and start the conversion process for retailers so after the 2014 tax year, the income tax is phased out and we replace it with something like FairTax (H.R. 25/S. 13).
That’d cost $40,000,000,000,000 - forty trillion dollars - I don’t think that’s gonna happen, period.
Countdown until Zer0 and his administration leaves office: 476 days as of October 1, 2011.
2 out of 11 - pretty poor showing. Only 2 useful ideas out of 11, that is.
Add a flat income tax to the above. Maybe a flat national sales tax too but I am wary of this creating a larger off the books economy. But every American should end up paying at least some income taxes. Too many pay zero and get all kinds of Gov’t bennies. They have no skin in the game as our retard president would call it
Hey puke- Show us what you got.
Great, great post blam. Thank you so very much. The 11-2012 election is all about the financial death spiral that 80 years of creeping socialism has resulted in for America. That election will be the watershed election of my lifetime.
During the Reagan years, Art Lafer published an article about an economic/social curve that he invented, which came to be known as “The Lafer Curve.” If you come across it please include it in this thread so that we can more easily compare it to the curves printed in Henry Blodgett’s article above.
If you decide to make the Lafer Curve a separate thread, please be so kind as to ping me.
“Four years ago, when the debt-fueled boom ended and the economy plunged into recession, most economists and politicians misdiagnosed the problem.
They thought we were having just another post-War recession—a serious recession, yes, but a cyclical one, a recession that easy money, government stimulus, and a return of “confidence” could fix.
A handful of economists, meanwhile, argued that the recession was actually fundamentally different—a “balance sheet” recession resulting from a quarter-century-long debt-binge, one that would take a decade or more to fix.”
Good list, which would do a lot toward fixing what is wrong.
I’ll take numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 for 500 Alex.
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