The only plausible way to fix the US economy & return the nation to financial prosperity (as I see i

So, after much thought, I believe I have finally figured out a multiple step plan that, if enacted immediately, would give this country the best chance to pull back from the brink and become economically robust once again. My plan wouldn't be an overnight fix, nor is it a panacea which would cure all of the ills that brought us here... but given 5 or 6 years of moderate struggles during full implementation (and by moderate, I mean less than the level of struggles we're seeing now within a matter of several months of initial enaction) I believe we'd be well on the road to being stronger as a nation than we have been in many decades.

Step 1: Repeal NAFTA, institute stiff taxes & tariffs on imported goods and, especially, on outsourced labor from US-based compnaies, withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization, institute tax credits & cuts for corporations & small businesses based on percentages of US citizens employed. These tax credits would be weighted to provide greater incentive to employ US citizens in all position levels, from cimple laborer all the way up to managerial roles. Use a 50% baseline, meaning if a company is headquartered in the USA, and they employ 50% American workforce, they would pay the baseline tax rate, not being eligible for any credits or cuts. Conversely, if they employ less than 50%, their tax rates would go up proportionately to whatever percentage under 50% they are at.

Step 2. Realign the FDA & US Department of Argiculture to actually work for the people instead of for the corporations. By doing this, also form a panel of experts to determine exactly what crops can be efficiently grown inside America's borders and enact taxes and tariffs on food imports accordingly... also write in provisions allowing these taxes and tariffs to be lifted following blights, droughts, freezes, and floods which result in major crop losses. For instance, South Texas is ideally suited for growing citrus year round, as is Florida, California, and even some other Southern states. Many farmers have been shut down over the past decade as we've imported much of our citrus from Mexico. That needs to stop.

Also, boost funding for greenhouse technological research and development... the money for this funding should be taken from the genetically modified crop & hormone/chemically treated livestock research the government is currently funding, as those issues should now be killed and no longer permitted to exist in this country, at least not on tax payer & consumer dimes. Instead of paying to develop sterile seeds that can grow a pitiful and under-nutritional corn plant in the middle of drypan in the midwest, we should be paying to develop sustainable farming practices, including sheltered & greenhouse agribusinesses that allow us to grow crops year round, recycling water used to irrigate, preventing pests & plant predation via natural repellant plants & physical barriers rather than genetic modification. Funding would also be included for natural polinization methods, including funds to reinforce our native honeybee populations.

Livestock & dairy operations would be encouraged to return to the model which was so successfull just a mere 30 or 40 years ago. Family farms & ranches would recieve large tax credits and all stock operations & dairy would be forced to plainly list on consumer labels any and all hormones, chemical treatments, and genetic tickering that had been performed on the stock. We'd also return to the days of the BLM grazing permits and pasture rotating to prevent the type of overgrazing which has turned much of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona into a huge desert where just 25 years ago there was relatively lush grassland.

Step 3. Withdraw from the United Nations. The UN has not worked for us. The USA being involved with the UN is very much like being with a woman who consistantly and routinely demands you stop seconds into coitus she initiated and then storms out of the bedroom. In the grand scheme of things, no matter what we do with the UN, it will never be seen as enough and we will always get crapped on in the end. I feel bad for the victims of genocide in all the backwater war torn nations around the world, I hate to see dictators slaughtering & raping their own people, and it really sucks to see some little hole in the wall get invaded and conquered by their warlord controlled neighbor... but it really doesn't matter that much to the prosperity and value of the United States. Unless there is a tangible spoil of war to be claimed and profit from, and that includes not only physical wealth, but also the profit of no longer having a threat to deal with and the profit of successful retalliation from any attack against the US, then we have no business getting involved. In other words, we should stop policing the world in any way shape or form and our military should return to what it was originally intended for: protecting America and our interests.

Step 4. Dismantle the Federal Reserve and replace it with a fully government banking oversight board. Also reinstate some form of the Glass-Steagal act to once again, forcing the breaking up of the megaconglomerate banks which have grasped us by our collective testicles and continue to violently twist them to this day. Granted, this portion of my plan needs some work and research done. Let's face it, monetary policy & banking is one of those subjects a man could study for a lifetime and barely scratch the surface. Bottom line, regulations MUST be put in place and the system MUST be completely transparent to the public. I do not believe it would be possible to return to the gold standard as we're dealing with money now which couldn't be covered with a thousand times the amount of known gold in the world. But certainly steps have to be taken to break us from a completely arbitrary, fiat currency which is at the whim of inflationary policies... I just don't know what those steps could logically be at this time.)

Step 4. Institute a national tourism & foreign business tax. That means any plane, train, bus, boat, or private vehicle entering this country from outside the country should be taxed based on its non-US resident occupants just like we currently charge people to use our national and state parks. This fee could be as small as $1 per person and still generate enough resources to fund our border security and customs agencies.

Step 5. Enact a flat tax. Enough with the rubix cubes of tax tables and nonsense our tax system has become. Personally, I believe income tax is unconstitutional, but I accept the fact that there is now no way possible for us to get out from under this crushing federal debt outside of income taxes. That said, our current tax system is critically broken and in need of fixing. A flat tax is the fairest way to tax people without debasing ourselves into a welfare state where laziness or unskilled people are rewarded and success is punished.

Step 6. Enact term limits for Congressmen, Senators, and make most cabinet positions elected positions. Also, pass regulations making it possible for voters to innitiate representative recalls when reps no longer seem to be performing the duty of representing their constituents. Furthermore, pass a law that states, if you are a sitting congressman or senator and you decide to run for president, you abandon your current seat on the day you announce your candidacy for president. The fact that every 4 years we have 6-8 representatives which spend anywhere from 6 months to 18 months getting paid to do absolutely NOTHING which they were elected for, instead opting to trot around the nation hyping their name for the Oval Office is offensive. As far as state governors go, any regulations regarding their candidacy for president and its effect on their governor status should be left to the individual states themselves. (which ties into step 7)

Step 7. Reinforce states' rights & sovreignity, but also reinforce the Bill of Rights and it's unwavering application to states' rights. The Bill of Rights is far too often trampled by states & municipalities in the name of states' rights and far too seldom are these infractions challenged by our federal courts. We don't need the Bill of Rights redefined or even reinterpreted, we need it REAFFIRMED. That means what it says, goes. I can understand the arguments about abortion and about wiretapping, both pro and con. I can understand these arguments because these are subjects our Constitution doesn't actually state a position on... but my God, when we have arguments about banning firearms and about cops searching houses without a warrant and state governments claim that interpretation of the Constitution is needed, BULLPIES! These are issues which are spelled out in plain english in the document and yes, this crap is bringing down our economy. We're wasting countless tax dollars fighting against our own civil rights and that's seriously messed up. (also ties into Step 8)

Step 8. (I will very gently and very sparsely cover this because it is a touchy T&C topic. I hope the mods will give me a couple of feet of leeway here.) End the war on drugs. The war on drugs has been a losing fight and it has contributed to our financial dimise. Instead, legalize the various narcotics, form a panel to set market prices (much like a state's liquor board) and then tax the hell out of it. If we find we can't cover the expense of treating those who need treatment, then increase the tax accordingly.

Step 9. Reaffirm the American Dream. Let's get away from talking crap about this country and get our swagger back. We're Americans first, part of the world second. If you have that priority reversed, then you, my friend, are a globalist and we'll never come out of this recession soundly if we continue down the globalist path because it is the globalists that want us in ruins.

WOW...you've really had your thinking cap on...good job! Every point you made is not only plausible, but possible! I'm serious about this...you should send this plan to Pres. Obama at the Whithouse...I think he might actually read it...you never know...even implement it! He's looking for people who think out of the box...and you've done a fine job of that! Good on 'ya!
p.s. Don't send it via email...put a stamp on an envelope and send it to him personally...I think he'll like it!

Bravo!

I like the way you think.

We have reached a stange point in America where common sense has become quite profound.

You need to understand the concept of reciprocity. If we initiate these taxes/tariffs on foreign goods and visitations, then we face the "other" nations doing the same to us. You would discourage trade and tourism across the board, and NO, that does not make us better off. Protectionism always fails to do the intended purpose, it instead brings about a myriad of unintended consequences. These counterproductive measures actually worsened the great depression.

Best case scenario is you get an effectively zero change in the ratio price of goods to income earned. Much more likely is that we lose out on more than we could ever possibly gain from enacting the protectionist measures you mentioned (the other ones I can't comment on off hand). Nice ideas with some merit, but a lot sound more like an isolationists wet dream than something that would actually benefit us. You can't do most of these measures without the equity markets absolutely DIEING as a result; which would raise calls of further government intervention, not something we need right now.

To the above poster, I don't think Obama would like it, he has read about Smoot-Hawley.

Populism is always an easy sell...

[edit on 1/25/09 by aava]

All of them are a good idea except this.

Step 4. Institute a national tourism & foreign business tax.

It would kill tourism and foreign investment.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


Excellent post. Thanks for putting some sincere thought into it.

You have posed many excellent and highly viable options for recovery.

Tax cuts and overall tax reform would inject a major jolt of adrenaline intto the economy and would yield immediate results.

Nice post...I like your style...it's in essence, a Libertarian platform, and I agree on most points.

Not trying to hijack here, but the banking crisis need to be addressed first and foremost...

1) We "cram down" the capital structure as I have described before by however many levels are necessary to restore the bank to double regulatory capital minimums. Why double? Because the losses aren't over - we're probably about halfway there with home price depreciation and other assets have yet to reach bottom as well.

2) We seize the bad banking institutions, wiping out the shareholders and severely haircutting the bonds. The bad assets are placed in an RTC-like structure with the government acquiring them at the current market price, that money being used to pay whatever haircut-level the bonds are worth. Good assets are sold and again used to retire the debt at its "haircut" level. The firm ceases to exist entirely, and the government then "runs down" the RTC-style portfolio.

#1 involves no public money of any sort.

#2 does involve public money, but the amount would be reasonable. While the initial outlay will be huge, the fact remains that these bonds are not worth zero, and yet if acquired at market prices (in some cases 10 to 20 cents) there really isn't much further they can fall (can't go below zero!) Since a good number of them will be worth somewhere near market price today in time, running them down in this fashion "works" in that while it requires a capital outlay the losses will not constitute the entire amount put in. If we do #2 we may put up a capital outlay of a trillion dollars or more, but the ultimate losses are likely to be in the few hundred billion dollar range - bad, but manageable.

If we can't get a handle on this....and very soon...then it's torch and pitchfork time...

edit for sp

[edit on 25-1-2009 by RolandBrichter]

Nice! except...your forgetting the fact this is and has been planned already...the run away dollar that is.These people despite what you may think are not stupid,they know exactly what they are doing..while countries over this side of the pond think we may have a recession until 2010 the latest 2011..thats going by OUR market and economy(UK),as soon as the dollar collapses...most of the world can kiss their ass goodbye and welcome a nice big depression..unless the great american government propose a new currency for the debt ridden,materialistic populace.Which WILL happen.. when you transporting car boot full of dollars to buy some fatty ready meals,you'd be surprised how desperate people will become,it will be linked to the euro and will become the new reserve currency of the world.

I have two things for you here.

I like almost all of your presented ideas: FAIR TRADE not FREE (free for them not for us) TRADE.

A great example is Korea, we can only import like 5,000 cars a year to them but they can flood our market with millions of theirs. That's FREE Trade (for them.)

Anyway here is the plan to "reset" the economy, the banks will have all the money they need because all Mortgages are paid in full and it is an ongoing stimulus due to lower interest rates on citizen's existing debts.

This is the course of action we are currently taking:

Let's assume that they will do what they have said and that is "7.4 to 7.78 trillion will be printed / created for the bailout and or credit revival and given to banks" the banks who currently refuse to loan money and extend lines of credit to business. (Links included are only for "information" sources to support the data and numbers included in this Summary)

www.bearmarketinvestments.com...
www.nypost.com...
www.huffingtonpost.com...

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago

Currently our US businesses are going "out of business" or if they are big enough they go to the government for money because the banks are terminating lines of credit and no longer loan money though they are getting trillions at 0% to 0.25% from the Fed. Point Blank, the money from the Fed is being squandered and Banks are not even trying to use the money to stimulate the frozen credit markets.

Now we want even MORE money printed / created (estimated to be over another trillion) for a stimulus package for consumers because we need consumer spending to revive the economy.

Addi tonally, Barack Obama reveals stimulus package that could exceed $1 trillion. Another 1 or 2 Trillion for another "stimulus" package to get money moving in the consumer markets is taken care of in "Plan B".

www.timesonline.co.uk...

So in essence, we are trying tickle down economics and it isn't working because the banks are keeping the money, investing it overseas, using it to buy out each other and giving themselves massive bonus & payouts. Plan A is not working and we have only to wait a few more weeks or months for our next financial crisis (credit defaults).
communities.canada.com... il-out.aspx

"Trickle Down" economics has changed over the years. Now with International business markets we have "Trickle Over" economics. Trickle over to foreign countries and financial interests. We cannot be successful with this course of action.

We can pull ourselves out of this crisis.


My plan:

Direct "Fed to Consumer Mortgage Recapitalization" or "Debt Recapitalization"

My plan is for mortgage holders / consumers to borrow mortgage money directly from the Fed directly at 0.5 %
By taking the 0.5% Mortgage "Recapitalization" from the Fed directly, we pay off our mortgages in full to the banks and the banks now have the capital of millions of "paid in full" mortgages and cannot complain about mortgage write-offs and defaults (if you haven't looked, go to a mortgage calculator and put in 6% or whatever your mortgage rate is... now try it with 0.5%).

At 0.5 % monthly mortgage payments are about half of what they are today. (STIMULUS PACKAGE DONE)

The banks get Mortgage pay-offs from millions of mortgages and have all the money they claim they need to alleviate their shortages and asset troubles. (As stated later, Banks will pick-up standard mortgage lending after the "recapitalization period".)

This is not a refinance and does not require property assessments, this is strictly a "mortgage recapitalization" with a hard $300.00 "origination fee". (This can be adjusted, below is a quick example of how this origination fee would be used to assist our troubled city & state governments, as an added bonus it this plan solves our current monetary crisis at the Local & State levels.)

$50 is paid to a bank or finance organization who provides the paperwork & processing.
$75 is paid to your city / municipality / county (Local Government - Fire, Police, etc.)
$75 is paid to State Government.
$100 is paid to the Federal Government.
(So Plan B also assists our local / state governments that are currently experiencing large budget shortfalls)


So which plan of action is better, another 1 or 2 Trillion spent on another "temporary results" stimulus package or a "long term" stimulus each and every month gained from the recapitalization of consumer mortgages?

Next - Legislate the REGULATION needed to prevent this from happening again and going forward, the banks can then pick up mortgage origination again.

Win / Win / Win ....

Review our current plans of action against this plan side by side. I believe that in the long run, that we will print less money and get the long term stimulus needed with Plan B. It is the common sense solution of our "current" problem. I also believe that our current course of action will continue well past $7.4 Trillion.

This will "reset" the current financial crisis. I would like to use a version of this plan for consumer debt as well... refinance all consumer debt (EXISTING revolving credit balances, auto loans, student loans, etc) at 3% with a similar "recapitalization" loan. Of course the catch on this is you cannot borrow additional revolving credit until your old credit balances now refinanced at 3% are paid in full.

This is a true and massive stimulus package that works for the citizens and the banks.


Secondly: Here is a plan to become 100% energy independent in 10 years... and then begin export of energy shortly there afterward.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I have so much I want to reply to but not nearly enough time (right now.) I will start with the first point only.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
Step 1: Repeal NAFTA, institute stiff taxes & tariffs on imported goods and, especially, on outsourced labor from US-based compnaies, withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization, institute tax credits & cuts for corporations & small businesses based on percentages of US citizens employed.

1a. This doesn't take into account companies with low paid US workers and very highly paid outside workers. Technically, a company with foreign-based executives who make many times the rest of the workforce combined will get a nice tax break if it employs tons of minimum wagers in the US.

How about a tax based on the percentage of gross income (turnover) that ends up funding employee payroll and benefits? Only employees in the US would apply to this number.

The idea is that highly efficient companies (those who make a lot of money for very little payroll expenditures) would be taxed at a higher rate because less of their income benefits the US citizens. At the same time, companies with very high rates of employee compensation would receive benefits because the company's continued existence benefits the US citizen.

1b. We need to completely eliminate unemployment. Whether you realize it or not, the people unemployment helps the most are the large corporations. They can liquidate a large portion of their workforce, including skilled labor, without any fear of cheaper, better, and more agile competitors springing up due to the sudden availability of cheap labor.

We should get rid of concept of unemployment and instead have "ReEmployment" where we give out government backed loans to start new businesses. The idea is that each upstart small-business employs several unemployed people. Instead of the government having to spend spend spend on the unemployed and receiving nothing in return, it will fund a much smaller pool of new businesses. The government gets a far better return on investment because all of the suddenly "ReEmployed" people.

Jon

reply to post by RolandBrichter




At least link to the source you copied that from.
Source

reply to post by aava


Read your history book! This nation was virtually self sufficient and experienced a massive personal income level boom from the end of WWII until Kennedy eliminated the 'protectionist' policies we'd conducted business under since the depression. America was a producer nation and industries actually came into the United States to hire people as well as to see their wares because of those policied.

Almost immediately upon eliminating those policies, the US trade deficit was born and the rate skyrocketed. It actually could be argued that our current fiat currency and the ridiculous inflationary monetary system we've choked on the past 3 decades is because we don't have protectionist policies in place. Nixon cited the trade deficit as his primary excuse for killing the gold standard.

International free trade is great if you're a globalist, run a major international corporation, or are into speculative stock manipulation... It sucks if you love the USA above all others, though. It has done far more harm to us than it has good.

Btw, I am not a populist, I'm a nationalist. I couldn't care less about the status of workers in Asia or farmers in South America when we have workers without jobs and farmers who can't stay in business right here in America. The glory of America was built upon us producing goods for trade and that same glory has been destroyed by us becoming disproportionately greater consumers of other nation's products... Products that had been manufactured by American hands for generations and should be manufactured by American hands still.

not possible , Rothschild and Rockefeller and other international banker would not allow that to happen

the only men who resisted the international bankers successfully were Stalin and Brezhnev , Stalin got poisoned and there were many attempts on his life, and a lots of nonsensical propaganda against him

USA needs to get rid of AIPAC lobby that controls it and the Fed which is international banker controlled , it also needs to stop destablising and balkanising nations into civil wars

[edit on 25-1-2009 by sadchild01]

"End the war on drugs. The war on drugs has been a losing fight and it has contributed to our financial demise"

---------------------------------

Fine with that but with one exception. Drunk driving. That's the one drug crime we need to fight even more. Drunk drivers are killers and maimers.

DUI should be an automatic felony, even for first time offenders. Nobody wants that felony on their record

reply to post by burdman30ott6


In the natural course of things, employers will try to take advantage of wage arbitrage, whether that means moving to a different state, or a different nation. Manufacturing is not cheap to do here, forcing it to take place in any other place than the cheapest opens up a whole can of worms in unintended consequences. It is simply not practical or beneficial to force textile producers to set up shop here, unless you are going to repeal minimum wage laws. If not, you are advocating the forced redistribution of wealth since consumers are not allowed (implicitly) access to the most efficient process of production; that being cheaper foreign imports. What we need to do is use our minds to the fullest. Instead of spending time sitting around a mill, we should be developing technology in fields that warrant (read: produce returns) it. This is not to say that in specific instances it is not better for us to be producing goods here.

Please cite where our personal income level was higher at any point in time than it is now (or the past few years). I understand most of the "wealth" gain during the past 15 years was derived from easy credit, but that does not diminish the fact that we are still more productive than we ever were immediately post-WW2 or otherwise.

You know specialization is always better than trying to be a jack of all trades, right? We can't live in a bubble and expect to have most of the luxuries we enjoy today.

Personal income levels adjusted for 2008 dollars

[edit on 1/25/09 by aava]

Originally posted by anachryon
reply to post by RolandBrichter

 

At least link to the source you copied that from.
Source

Oops...sorry mom....the quote was taken from Saturday morning's Market Ticker blog by Karl Denninger....no attempt at plagiarism here!

[edit on 25-1-2009 by RolandBrichter]

I like the OP's idea, no doubt we need protectionism and tariffs

Our trade rivals, China, Japan and Germany, two of which we beat in WWII and paid for their reconstruction are kickin our asses in trade.

The current system is set up by the super wealthy for the super wealthy, and I think we all know that they are not going to allow a fair system.

These people that run the international banks are parasites, they leech off the labor of others.


www.perfecteconomy.com...

reply to post by burdman30ott6


Number 5, the solution is the VAT Tax, a national sales tax from raw materials, to finished purchased good. (VAT being Value Added Tax).

Other then that...

Do you plan on running for President? You have my vote!