How would you fix the economy?

Started by HelenaHandbasket | 14 contributors
updated 20 days ago

What would you do if you were in charge of sorting out this mess? We all have our own ideas about what should be done. Speak up!

We are all going to hell in a handbasket

We are living in some seriously crazy times. There is no telling what will happen over the next day let alone the coming months. I know that we are all going to have to pay for this but I think there are some who could pay a little more than most of us.

I think that Henry Paulson should round up all the CEO’s of all the big banks and companies who’ve added to/caused a lot of the pain and start taking their bonuses. Seriously how can Lloyd the CEO at Goldman spend a $68 million bonus except to help bail us out?

How many of Lloyd Blankfein's bonuses does it take to bail out Wall Street?

I did the bail out math on CNBC.com:

From “Helena Handbasket:
“I like to do the math in terms of (Goldman CEO) Lloyd Blankfein’s bonus. According to Bloomberg, Blankfein beat Wall Street records with a bonus of $67.9 million in 2007. I went ahead and rounded it up to $68 million. You would need 10,294.12 of Lloyd Blankfein’s bonuses to bail out Wall Street. That’s a lot of helicopters and houses in the Hamptons!”

...I agree with Steve!!

And, with another Steve. Steve Forbes:

“This whole crisis was absolutely unnecessary. The list of villains is long and ugly. The housing bubble and the promiscuous issuance of exotic junk securities would never have reached the level they did had the Fed not been so recklessly loose in its monetary policy. Our central bank behaved like a bartender who continues to ply low- to no-cost booze to already inebriated customers. The White House and Treasury Department went along with the Fed’s weak-dollar policy, which wrought havoc on the world by creating a commodity bubble and a catastrophic loosening of lending standards and investing prudence.”

Oh, and:

“Congress has long shielded the wild-~~and criminal~~-profligacy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These two monsters played a critical role in the horrible proliferation of subprime mortgages. Borrowers and speculators were given mortgages that no sane lender would ever have approved a few years ago.”

[Just venting here, folks.]

added by mswen about 1 month ago

Give Our Military a Snip-Snip

680+ bases around the world. Two simultaneous wars, both shoddily justified. A War on Drugs that hardly takes place within our own borders. Selling/giving/gifting/smuggling of weapons to anyone with a buck. A budget far above most of our closest competitors combined.

Come on, what are we afraid of anyways. Dwight here warned of our military becoming a part of our economic infrastructure. Here we are, did we really need to pulverize an entire nation in search of a few creeps hanging in caves? Were missiles really far superior to a few well trained men?

Nope.

added by ghosty 20 days ago

Bias Much?

First thing I would do is stop listening to Henry Paulson. He used to be the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Wasn’t it people like him who got us into this mess in the first place? And if you look at his so-called bail out plan, you’d see that parties like Goldman Sachs are poised to benefit. If you’re looking for someone to fix this mess it might be wise to go to someone who doesn’t have any conflict of interest.

added by Elijay about 1 month ago

Diamond Cabaret

1222 Glenarm Pl, Denver, CO 80204

Strippers! The world needs more employed strippers! Then, they’ll all go to Target and spend, spend, spend…

added by davidh about 1 month ago

Follow FDR's lead but avoid his mistakes

1. This idea seems to be picking up steam. But must be executed correctly or we waste taxpayer’s money.

We must invest in alternative energy’s needed infrastructure changes. This must be done carefully with market-based solutions. Let’s not build solar panels in Seattle and a wind farm in Arizona.

Let’s allow tax credits and subsidize the production of alternative fuels based on output rather than need.

Also, Detroit needs some subsidizes to maintain production. This should be attached to minimum gas MPG gallon output, not just a promise to invest. We also must use some of the money for consumers who buy the cars. As demand for oil drops, no one will purchase these new cars unless we have incentives.

added by davidh 20 days ago