News

Public Works Projects

Two of the most successful aspects of the FDR adminstration and its ability to get the US out of the Great Depression were the New Deal legislation, designed to prevent another Depression, and the public works programs. 

It was recently brought to my attention that roads in Hawaii are deplorable and freeways are lacking.  That is just one example.  There is plenty of work to be developed with the bailout money all over the US.  Instead, it is simply being given to the corporations that contributed to this demise but there has been very little employment projects to reduce the number of unemployed.  Even worse, the deregulation of the mortgage and banking industry has not been reversed.  If we stay on this course and don't learn from the successful efforts of the FDR adminstration, the situtation will not get better unless, of course, you are looking for a "two for one deal" on a house.   

Dear Ostaad

David, I wish...

most of the "we the people" felt as confident or knowledgeable about buying off the toxic assets of the failed/failing banks as you. Last time I checked no one I know was looking to buy the "toxic assets". I don't doubt your ideas about fixing the economic morass we are in are valid. What those of us with good ideas about solving the current economic problems must consider is the scale of the problem and the amount of time it requires to implement those solutions. That's the reason we have governments. One of the main functions of governments is rapid and effective response to social and economic problem aside from fighting natural hazards. Governments are better equipped to contain and stabilize situtations like this than the public that has lost or losing jobs, income, savings and most importantly confidence.

Oh, one more thing, the government can print money and "we the people" can't. I am not very happy with the way Obama administration is handling some "rescue operations" of the economy. But I have confidence in the Obama team and I'm sure they will make the necessary adjustments to the unprecedented spending figures in the budget as time goes on. He himself admitted in his last townhall meeting that he is aware of the future impact of his budget spending level and he will looking to review it regularly in order to make the necessary adjustments.

BTW, the elite ruling class will always have the front row but "we the people" should be able to yank their chains if we see they are taking advantage of the system.

Ostaad

  I doubt if I will ever regret my vote for Obama vs. Hillary and Clinton and unfortunetly Ron Paul didn't have a chance.

As for spending the money that one does not have and CAN NOT AFFORD to borrow (by consumer or government) that is wrong which is one of the wrong policies that got us to where we are under the same pretext of creating opportunities which is not a whole lot different than what is being done now, except that now the numbers are becoming larger and larger.

Some of the solutions are actually simple but not to the benefit of the top elite and that is why is not being implemented.

e.g. So called Toxic assets (peoples homes and mortgages!) do not have to be sold to investors and 85% financed by taxpayers just for investors to buy them few cents on the dollar just to sell at profits to public 

They could simply be sold directly by government (or hired auctioneers and management companies) DIRECTLY to the public and we the people could buy them much direct cheaper than what the investors will in bulk and also the banks and government will sell them much higher and faster than the investors will...

By the way this is what VA , FHA and even banks have been doing for years with their foreclosures.

It is just that the banks who are in trouble should be asked to push sell their bad assets in 3 months than holding on to them for so long and keep crying about it and asking for help! 

Let the bad banks close and foreclose and then Fed bankruptcy courts can order these assets to be sold by government to the public.

Let markets work instead of all this feeding money to slow the inevitable. 

 But this way the ones who will be buying these assets IN BULK won't make all the money that they will (and pass any losses to taxpayers since we are financing their investment)

You see the solutions is simple but is not to benefit of the wall street and the rich which is what Obama plan does. make rich richer, pass any risks to the tax payers and nothing gets to the public except their homes and mortgages getting foreclosed and later having to buy them from the the rich bulk buyers at market value again! (not to mention this process leaves much room for corruption and so called friendly internal sales etc).

That is just one of the examples of the WRONG SO CALLED SOLUTIONS which have simpler solutions.

Dear David

I agree with you. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

The change is here and now

Obama has the fortune of having very intelligent critics, whose opinions he takes very seriously, as he has said it befor in so many words.

The only difference is Obama is the one whose arse is on the hot plate. If the economy gets worse, then Obama and all who agreed with his ideas, will not have a chance to achieve any of the goals. Obama MUST stabilize the economy and figure out how much he has to spend. This is exaclty the kind of economic hole that you dig yourself out of by spending. There are two big spenders in the US economy. One is the consumers and the other is the government. Unfortunately the consumers were not spending the money the had earned, but the money they were lent. The government is the only spender left standing. 

Never count on the members of the "ruling class" to save the economy. The only class that can save the economy is the Middle Class.

Obama must pick his fights very carefully with a clear set of priorities.

I an not regretting my vote for him, yet.

Dear Abarmard

 I supported and campaigned for Obama versus options of Clinton and McCain and supported the CHANGE in politics as usual that he promised.

He does represent change from what we had but in some areas he is wrong such as

Borrowing trillions AND passing it to the top of pyramid to trickle down (Two mistakes) not to mention that he is not dealing with underlying and fundamental issues and corruptions . He is simply doing what any average democratic party nominee such as Hillary would have done, no change there.

As for foreign policy instead of containment of US forces and promoting to work within UN umbrella, he is continuing the bully policies of US in other countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan (he has ordered US forces to go to Afghanistan twice already!

This also is NOT a fundamental change in US policy either.

In fact I am not the one who has changed my mind , but Obama is the one who represents a change from what he had promised to what he is doing...

Still he is better than the two other alternatives that we had and if things repeated I still would have campaigned for him vs McCain and Clinton whom by the way has the very important post of the Secretary of state....

My support for Obama was from an independent point of view and a tactical one versus those who blindly follow party lines, no matter what.  Not to mention that a Black African American holding the strongest position in the world did send a message to all in US and the world that there is no more room for racism and everything is possible regardless the skin color or where ones parents are from or if raised in a single parent household or not ! For that only, the whole campaign and the change was worth it ! 

As this article points out there are also many others who are starting to question the change that was promised based on the policies that are being layed out for future. Many say it is only 100 days, be patient, but the road plan is already announced and now he will simply implement it.. ...

If you see someone who is fixing a damaged building by painting it in beautiful colors instead of reinforcing its broken foundation, you dont have to wait till paint job is done to say that the painting is not going to work! but it will sure look better for a while before it falls even further!

I don't understand

Your quick turn around from being a hard core Obama supporter. 

Nothing wrong with changing your mind, but I am just shocked. Hopefully things will all fall into its place by time.  

Hurray!

  "'.. the White House has announced their bank bailout plan, and if there's one thing that's clear, it's that all of the people who caused the economy to crater in the first place will not be held in any way accountable, and will in fact receive a sweetheart, no-risk stake in the farcically-named "public-private partnership" that will buy up toxic assets .' "