Steve, if I were beating my head against the wall causing a massive headache, I wouldn't need a complicated plan to figure out if I stopped beating my head, I would begin feeling better. Massive government spending is similar to pounding your head against the wall when fighting the forces of economic renewal. It won't lead to a sustained recovery, because its stimulating effect will be offset by anticipated higher taxes and the need to finance the deficit.
Instead of massive spending and more bailouts, we need an absolutely clear path to reform our financial system. And we won't get that, until we find out in unequivocal terms what caused the breakdown of financial systems worldwide. Which means a bi-partisan commission, or task force to dig out the truth, put together a report and issue recommendations for reform.
Someone in the Obama administration must have been schooled in the basic tools of management; that being to Understand, Access, Change and then Monitor results. Yet, day-by-day we see them enacting change without understanding the root cause of the problems. It's almost as if they don't want to know what caused the financial meltdown, or perhaps they don't want the American people to know. And have decided to let reporters dig out bits of information (like where bailout billions are going when delivered to AIG).
Think about this for a moment. If reports are accurate, the American Taxpayer just spent billions bailing out a German and French bank. Since I'm now a large shareholder of AIG, I vote foreign banks be taken care of by foreign governments. And we should worry about shoring up American Banks, instead of the Deutsche Bundesbank.
I'll bet we could find billions in fancy office furniture and luxury conferences if we examined their books. |
