As we pick up the pieces from a Congress that let us down again, but we allow them to fix it with taxpayer money. Get it thru your partisan head, every member is owned by Wall Street (a.k.a. they receive money from companies they oversee). On the media: It's too funny how every foriegn-policy talking head is now an economic analayst. No one has any solutions, just more whining and partisan cheap shots to keep you watching.
From what I've gathered so far, the backbone of this collapse was brought on by the Fed allowing people to borrow money they couldn't pay back, then allowing companies to buy/sell them for paper profit they could cash in, no regulation (but encouragement) at the Congressional level and lastly, Alan Greenspan.
Got any solutions? Here are actual solutions that I've found interesting:
By Gretzel: A better plan to fix liquidity for less than $700 Billion :
1)Moratorium all mortgage payments on all residential real estate for 5 years or until the houses are sold. This is cheaper and guaranteed to jump start the economy. This will give the market time to sort out real estate prices and stop the foreclosures that are bringing down prices in a spiral.
2) raise the FDIC insurance to $1 million on bank accounts; this will get money out of treasuries and into bank deposits: liquidity.
3) Means test all new home loans on 29% and 33% debt ratios and minimum down payments from 10% to 33% depending on the home cost.
4) Home equity loans should be for home improvements only.
5) Credit cards should be on net 30 basis only; if you can not afford it do not buy it. 6) special finance arrangements should be available for longer term purchases like cars, but not toasters and certainly not soap.
Solution by Congress:
Proposal Number Five was to bring about the “centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.” If Karl Marx were to rise from the dead today, he might be delighted to discover that most economists and financial commentators, including many who claim to favour the free market, agree with him.
About Me
- mac1
- A middle-class family guy who likes rock, rooting for the underdog and can barely understand the basics of the hip-hop craze. This blog will try to keep a local pulse on the many fascinating ups and downs of living in a small New England town. I'm a compulsive, competitive but sometimes disinterested person who enjoys playing softball with a wood bat, duckpin bowling with strobes and music blasting, one-night-a-week winter basketball and will play any other sport that doesn't require shoes with blades, balls or rollers. Will hear your cool, new music and raise you a numbered Love Buzz (#757) while daring you to enjoy Of Montreal.