Our Economic Model is Broken ...

The structure of our economy 70% consumption, 30% production is gone forever. Here are six policies that we must implement to start to get out of this crisis.

~ Nationalization of all banks through a bank holiday... to get liquidity and trust back into the banking system.

~ Nationalization of the Fed ... Why should we borrow our own money? We need a Public Central Bank that creates our currency and credit for the benefit of the public who underwrite its value and shoulder the risk.

~ Medicare for All ... Saves millions of jobs, helps the under and uninsured, helps business, helps the states and can start to be implemented within a month or two and finished within 18 months.

~ Higher taxes on the well to do, the closing of loopholes and all income counted as ordinary income ... A Carbon Tax, A Tobin Tax .... The budget deficit must be contained.

~ A shorter workweek ... Why should we have a 40 hour workweek? Efficiency has been going up for decades, yet real wages and benefits are flat and falling. The new economy won't have tens of millions of jobs in retail anymore, we have to spread the work. How about a 32 hour workweek? We went from 48 to a 40 hour work week six days to five and it worked just fine.

~ Bankruptcy "CramDowns" for consumers to get them back on the right track. Acorn and other social agencies could prepackage BKs for bankruptcy judges. And then credit has to get much tighter.

Politically possible? ... Not right now ... but when the Dow hits 6000 anything goes ... and ...If we don't start demanding these reforms they will never even get considered ... We need big answers to big problems.

What is it that FDR is remembered for? ... Social Security

What are the Democrats remembered for? ... Medicare

What do we need now to give new hope an a shared destiny for the people of this country? ... Medicare for All !

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I think a VERY close eye must be put upon Our "Political" portion TOO! It SICKENS Me to hear & see the "Political" CRAP coming out of Those mouths! It is nothing more than "Bait & Switch" tactics at their worst! The most overused (& it seems forever!) is the Tax Cuts!
They use this as a weapon saying they are thinking of the "little guy' But the little guy NEVER sees these so called cuts, But the Elite DO!

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"'centrism' is another word for liberal conservatism."

Actually considering the country is still more conservative than liberal, how ever one defines those labels, Obama would ensure being a one term president should he abondon that strategy.

He worked hard to distance himself from his "most liberal senator" label which is what got him elected. to go back will be his downfall.

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yup, give the world economy about 6 more months because the race to the bottom is picking up steam... my thoughts are when the dow hits around 6000, that's it, too late for a turn around no matter how much $$ is thrown at it...

now we have billions of people on this planet, millions of companies, banks galore, the list goes on...

what is the worst that can happen... global bankruptcy... people will find new ways to meet basic needs of water, food, safety and warmth... this time, we sink capitalism, greed and financial hanky panky...

just thinking outside the box... back to coffee...

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If Obama has been busy doing one thing it is to try to build consensus. After decades of inter-party strife punctuated by televised screaming and whining it is easy to understand why this should be a high priority. Surely Obama watched the Clinton administration be crippled by partisan attacks and no doubt he is being particularly considerate of the minority in large part out of a hope that this same fate can be averted now.

We can argue whether this is a good strategy, but at least most of us can understand that it is a strategy that a reasonable person might pursue. Bipartisanship can be a great thing and in the increasingly remote past Democrats and Republicans were sometimes able to set their differences aside for the good of the nation. To want to return to such bipartisanship is a noble goal.

However, it is a big mistake for the new administration to make moves that it knows are wrong just in order to make the minority party happy. It is especially a mistake to do this in the area of the now crippled economy and to do it to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

There no doubt are times when taxes are too high but the recent history of tax cuts and the economy's response to those cuts clearly shows that this is not one of those times. We have just ended an eight year period in which the answer to every problem was either to cut taxes or to launch a war and often to do both at the same time. The result has been economic stagnation and finally an economic collapse. In contrast, the economy boomed in the preceding eight years following a tax increase which showed the world that the U.S. was getting a handle on its ballooning debt.

It seems pretty clear that this country needs more tax cuts as badly as it needs another war. And yet more tax cuts is what Obama's stimulus program calls for. 40% of his stimulus plan is wasted on tax cuts. This may well be the worst mistake that Obama could make. There are much better uses for that money and we know it.

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Not just the Bush Admin for it's numerous crimes against US and the World, but also Corps and their Whore Politicians.
Prosecute Predatory lenders, Credit Card Corps who are now increasing interest rates,CEO's who pilferred and Defrauded US.
Prosecute and Jail Most, Execute the rest for Treason, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity!!!Start with Cheney,Rumsfeld and work your way down to Thaine.

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or it will corrupt this administration too.

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Please tackle our longest war, the war on drugs and immediately establish a Presidential Commission to examine our current drugs policy, asking former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders to be its Chairperson. Bias the selection of Committee members with those from the public health and harm reduction communities.

We need to end the current war on drugs, especially since this is not a war on drugs but a war on people, particularly poor people of color. Make the public health system, rather than the criminal justice system, our priority in this area.

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Clinton was weaving and ducking, trying to get something out of Congress. Congress was listening to those who told them that the general public loved Reagan and his ideas.

I am not sure any President could have done much more than tack to the Center in 1993.

Now the year 2009 is a different matter.

Obama will really miss the boat if he insists upon bringing the Republicans along. You need a pole axe to bring the Republicans along.

His appointments for economic advisors are frightening. On the other hand, I can see how he would try to reassure the monied class. They are panicked right now. It is the non-mmoneyed class that should panick - not the guys with wealth.

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If centrism and the Federal Reserve are so wicked, someone needs to explain the Clinton record, which is just the opposite of the Bush II record:

longest economic expansion in American history--a record 115 months of economic expansion
More than 22 million new jobs: more than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years -- the most ever under a single administration
Highest home ownership in American history
Made the Federal government smaller (a feat matched only by Harry Truman; if you like small government, vote Democratic)
Lowest unemployment in 30 years: unemployment dropped from more than 7 percent in 1993 to just 4.0 percent in November 2000; unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record, and the rate for women was the lowest in more than 40 years
Largest expansion of college opportunity since the GI Bill
Connected 95 percent of schools to the Internet
Lowest crime rate in 26 years.
Family and Medical Leave Act for 20 million Americans
Smallest welfare rolls in 32 years
Higher incomes at all levels: after falling by nearly $2,000 between 1988 and 1992, the median family's income rose by $6,338, after adjusting for inflation; all income brackets experienced double-digit growth; the bottom 20 percent saw the largest income growth at 16.3 percent
Lowest poverty rate in 20 years: the poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent to 11.8 percent in 1999--the largest six-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years
Lowest teen birth rate in 60 years
Lowest infant mortality rate in American history
Deactivated more than 1,700 nuclear warheads from the former Soviet Union: efforts of the Clinton-Gore Administration led to the dismantling of more than 1,700 nuclear warheads, 300 launchers and 425 land and submarine based missiles from the former Soviet Union
Paid off $360 billion of the national debt: under Clinton, we were on track to pay off the entire debt by 2009; what a difference a stolen election makes...
Converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus
Lowest government spending in three decades
Lowest federal income tax burden in 35 years
More families owned stock than ever before
Most New Jobs Ever Created Under a Single Administration: Republicans really chew the rug when you mention this one, so it's worth repeating constantly
Median Family Income Up $6,000 since 1993
Unemployment at Its Lowest Level in More than 30 Years
Highest Home ownership Rate on Record
7 Million Fewer Americans Living in Poverty
Largest Surplus Ever
Lower Federal Government Spending: after increasing under the previous two administrations, federal government spending as a share of the economy was cut from 22.2 percent in 1992 to 18 percent in 2000--the lowest level since 1966
The Most U.S. Exports Ever: between 1992 and 2000, U.S. exports of goods and services grew by 74 percent, or nearly $500 billion, to top $1 trillion for the first time
Lowest Inflation since the 1960s: inflation was at the lowest rate since the Kennedy Administration, averaging 2.5 percent, down from 4.6 percent during the previous administration
The child poverty rate declined more than 25 percent
The poverty rate for single mothers was the lowest ever
The African American and elderly poverty rates dropped to their lowest level on record
The Hispanic poverty rate dropped to its lowest level since 1979
Lowest Poverty Rate for Single Mothers on Record

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Before the week was over, President Obama OK'd drones with missiles fired, in two batches, three hours apart on to villages in Pakistan. This is continuation of a bad policy by the Bush Administration. It is illegal under international law. There is no "a little bit illegal", like there is no "little bit pregnant".

Some of the new executive orders have loopholes that are destructive and not change from the Bush administration: closing Guantanamo, but within a one year limit, and looking for another way to continue the illegal holding of individuals who have not been charged with any crime, nor tried in a court. Another is making an exception in his lobbying rule, so he can have an assistant to the Sec'y of Defense...it weakens by loopholes.

Saying "the US doesn't torture" and then giving the CIA a loophole, is also destructive and not change we can believe in. International Law is to be followed.

I am bothered by defenders of President Obama who do not wish to bring up these unpleasant events. I voted for President Obama, knowing he is centrist. I protest illegal bombing on Pakistan. I voted for peace, ending of occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan (hoping Obama would not, as Michael Moore has said, "keep his promise" to escalate).

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NOW THE THREAT OF ANOTHER BUSH IN THE WHITE HOUSE IS ALREADY BEING BANDIED ABOUT. GIVE US ALL A BREAK. IF THE REPUBLICANS HAVE ANY SENSE AT ALL (WHICH IS DOUBTFUL, CONSIDERING EVERYTHING) THEY SHOULD NEVER EVEB PRONOUNCE THE NAME AGAIN, LET ALONE ATTEMPT TO PUT ANOTHER OF THEM INTO THE WHITE HOUSE

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