correction there have been 2 Stimulus already, the first was started by the bush admin sending a few hundred dollars to everyone.600 to everyone that file a tax return.

hope u correct this on your show.

As per Mike’s point, futher ‘Priming the Pump” would be the third time in 9 months the gov’t has tried to spur the economy.

The Bush Administration rolled out Stimulus Part One.

I hope this faulty memory won’t be indicative of the host’s persepctvie in driving the discussion.

Yes, we need a new stimulus. It should be targeted toward the States and Municipalities so as to enable them to roll back the cuts and services that are currently in progress nation-wide. As Paul Krugman (New York Times) said in December last year, the last thing we need is 50 Herbert Hoovers ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/opinion/29krugman.html )

I also have a series of op-eds in the Cambridge Chronicle which discuss the stimulus and bailout. There are also several letters to the editor; check my blog:
http://martingevans.blogspot.com/

looking forward to the show.

Tom, question for your panel this morning, if only 10% of the stimulus package has been actually spent so far, why is everybody jumping at the idea that the package has not worked?!!!

Aren’t we suppose to wait until maybe at least 60 or 70% of the money is injected into the economy before assessing its merits and consider a 2nd stimulus??!!!!

Why our belief in Capitalism so weak now? What the heck happened?

Please, please NO More Stimulus.

On the other hand, it will be a nightmare to even imagine US going broke (the way Russians did, but in complete reciprocal process) or we are already broke and just waiting for the final crack to take us all down?

Goodness.. all I can think clearly now is, “if its not gonna kill me, it will make me stronger”.

God Bless America!

ANOTHER STIMULUS?? WONDERFUL! LET’S HAND OVER SOME MORE MONEY TO THE WALL STREET FINANCIAL TERRORISTS THAT HAVE DESTROYED AMERICA’S MIDDLE CLASS. THIS IS NOT ABOUT STIMULUS – IT IS ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY!!!

PEOPLE ARE STILL WAITING, AND WAITING TO SEE PRESIDENT OBAMA GO AFTER THE FINANCIAL CROOKS AND THEIR REGULATOR CRONIES WHO LOOKED THE OTHER WAY.

PEOPLE ARE STILL WAITING FOR THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS TO STAND UP TO THE BANKERS AND THE CORPORATE LOBBYISTS AND MAKE THEM STOP THEIR CAMPAIGN BRIBERY.

UNTIL PRESIDENT OBAMA BACKS UP HIS MAGNIFICENT ORATORY WITH REAL ACCOUNTABILITY (AKA – JAIL TIME) FOR THE WALL STREET CROWD THAT SUCKER-PUNCHED AMERICA, NO AMOUNT OF ADDED STIMULUS IS GOING TO RESTORE OUR ECONOMY.

If you go back five months…. I have been saying:
a) Get rid of Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner
b) Give broad guidelines to District Courty Judges, to issue relief (postponement of mortgage payments) whenever they see a proof of fraud/deception in mortgage contracts without changing the face value of the contract. This would at least stop the massive transfer of wealth.

As of today, everytime a foreclosure happens average $25K is taken out from the pockets of the individual little guy and goes to the institutional wealth pool. If you add up the loss of value of neighbors of the foreclosure, it adds up to well over $100K.

Mortgage renogotiations will not work – they are done at the mercy of the thief system that is arranged to realize more profits from failures.

From today’s New York Times:
Cities Lose Out on Road Funds From Federal Stimulus

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/us/09projects.html?hp

It is interesting that the French government which has centralized government has had better luck with their stimulus. What is amazing about the system over there is how much people get for unemployment and for how long, they get up to 65% of the salary for two years!
This of course has negative consequences as it has a huge drain on the national dept.

New York Times:
France, Unlike U.S., Is Deep Into Stimulus Projects
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/business/global/07stimulus.html?ref=europe

The middle class will continue to decay, employment will continue to rise. Public welfare accounts will decline due to excessive state and federal debt. Unrest of the growing lower class will increase. This is the beginning of the end of the United States.

Is this still a capitalist society? Isn’t this straight up socialism? What would happen if the powers that be who have proven themselves failures were allowed to fail and, in true American form, the little guy would could move in and give it a try? It is obvious that buissiness as usual is not working, isn’t it time for reconstrucion? This is just a bandaid!

People need to remember that it has been congress that has screwed this up, Obama’s programs have all been gutted by the Dems, they are out of control. The sates are dying, 48 states are no laying off people in droves. Why the states are not being backed up with bonds or loans is beyond me.

What is happening in California is an odd case, they have absurd laws regarding how they pass things there.

The unemployment rate is more like 18% to 20%, this is a depression.

The republicans made this! It’s Bush and the GOP who have been in charge fro the last 10 years and they created the mess. The democrat’s under Clinton did their fair share and own this as well.

Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner are wall street cronies doing there bidding and they have collectively put the nails in our financial coffins.

I think we are toast and we are looking at ten years or more of stagnation here, not unlike Japan in the 90’s.
A lot of people are going to end up living in tents.

As long as the big business keeps shipping production overseas, and we keep buying stuff made overseas because people “over there” make it for slave wages, the unemployment will keep going up. As long as unemployment keeps going up, people will keep losing health care, and social security and medicare will not have enough funds to keep going. As long as CEOs are paid more for cutting labor costs, workers will lose pay and benefits. As people lose pay and befits they buy less and consume less thus save energy and slow down global warming. As we consume less energy, no more cars and airconditioning. WOW, is technology taking us back to the stone age?

Definitely more stimulus with better aiming. I’m with Galbraith and Krugman on this one. And let’s cut out the treatrical sight of weak-kneed conservatives screaming at the deficit mouse peeking at them from under the stool they stand on.

That said, attention should also be paid to the banks, the “toxic assets” problem, and the extent to which banking interests have crushed and continue to crush consumers. The way the banking “industry” (jeez, industries make things — all banks are doing these days is make trouble!) — the way banks’ influence on Congress makes them somehow above the law is as depressing and disillusioning to most Americans as our current economic depression. Time to get real.

Larry Summers had it right from the outset: “Fiscal stimulus is critical but could be counterproductive if it is not timely, targeted and temporary.” The President (mistakenly) turned it over to Congress. And Congress blew it. The stimulus package is government at its worst — no one seems to have read the legislation, much less thought about it — and we will be paying large costs (financial, political, etc.) for years to come. Since so little of the money has actually been spent, the spending items should be revisited and cut back sharply whereever the effect will not be “timely, targeted and temporary.” There’s really nothing more to be said.

We’ve spent our way up to this peak, we spent our savings and any money the government pumps into the economy is just going to pay past debts. It’s time for the fall, people in this country need to get used to competing with people who live off rice and have no electricty.

Some people did see this coming but the politicians and the media don’t want to hear about it and don’t want people to talk about it. That’ll be the end of them.

If we rise up and overthrow the government does it clear our debts? Maybe our children will just tell China we’re just not going to pay them back.

BEA reported the Apr 2009 reduction in national tax liabilities around $60-bn. Savings were up $120-bn the same month. Why were tax reductions ever part of ARRA?

I’m getting sick of hearing both parties spin on this.
We are in deep horse crap here and it was caused by the banks and wall street. What does Bush and then Obama do?
Give trillions away too these criminals.

Then they argue that we can’t have a national health care plan, while they sit in Washington with the very kind of health care we should all have at our expense.

From were I sit, I am seeing a lot of BS and smell a lot of rats. Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner to name a few. Now Obama avoids the issues by spinning. I’m so disappointed in this man.

Forget about it! GAME OVER! There will be no economic recovery. America as we knew it is ending; that’s been their plan all along, and it’s working like a charm!

If we really want to compare the current state of things to a disease, let’s liken it to diabetes. Insulin alone will not keep a diabetic person from certain death. The diabetic patient has to alter his or her diet, exercise habits, etc. etc. Why, then, do so many American’s hover in anticipation for the government to cure (all of) their ills with another stimulus package? What have WE done for ourselves? I hear sound bytes on the radio of “real Americans” relating all of the sacrifices they’ve had to make: couldn’t get a new car this year, no Disneyworld for the kids, having to buy (gasp) generic grocery items vs. the namebrand, etc. etc. Really? There’s a thing that the American people had back during the Great Depression that we seem to lack today: intestinal fortitude. Some of us were already good at being poor before all of this hit. In our urban dwelling we have a small but fruitful garden, we walk more than we drive (which saves gas $$ and is kinder to the environment), we get our entertainment from buying used DVDs (four for $20) @ the local Blockbuster, I went back to a landline and cut my monthly phone bill down by $100, and our vacation this year may just be a brief camping trip close to home. When was the last time you went thrifting or garage/estate sale crawling? It’s a blast and it’s CHEAP!

I don’t have it all figured out. I know that people are living in tents and going without food. I am a working disabled person without health insurance. Things can really suck, and most days it’s a real chore to find my “fire”. But I learned a long time ago not to hold my breath and wait for Washington.

Again this talk of “mortgage haircuts?” If those with under water mortgages had more money they would spend more? Oh that’s nice! Well, who wouldn’t? I am busting my chops to pay my mortgage which may or may not be under water so send me a check and I’ll spend more. Nice country. I think I immigrated here just in the right time.

Where I live there is a real (U6, not U3) unemployment rate near 40%. We have a collapse in economic demand, because the people who either make things or who used to make things, cannot afford to buy things. Logically employers will not invest in new capacity to make more stuff – they are still having problems selling currently produced items, even at current rates of production. Give the rich/investor/employer class more money and they would save it – as they can’t invest it in money making enterprises. If we are not careful, this will lead to a deflationary (death) spiral. This is Hooverism all over the place, complete with our new Hoovertowns – now called Bu$hvilles…..The financial gambling with housing also has been pushed over the edge by the 2008 price spikes in oil, natural gas, food, coal, electricity, other commodities….falling real wages and rising expenses led to this debacle.

Then, add in the new twin horses of the Apocalypse – Peak World Oil production and Global Warming. Solutions to this will involve massive capital investments, and these can be paid for by those who consume this energy – much of it imported. But real and realistic energy prices need to be brought to America on a gradual but steady basis. A good start would be Renewable Feed-In Laws for electricity (as in Germany), which costs the Federal Government ZERO dollars, and results in massive capital investment, fast. And a massive program for public (electric) transportation, which will lower fossil fuel consumption. And if we need massive permanent subsidies for electric public transportation for a while, so be it.

And do it fast, or plan on the US largely regressing to 3rd World conditions for the most part, with isolated sections of wealth and affluence. To me, that seems yucky on a massive scale.

Dave B

The show ended on an interesting comment, declaring a ‘war on infrastructure deterioration’ as WWII put people back to work producing the materials to support the war. To further the analogy. Sell ‘war bonds’. Yu said American may have to prepare for a 10% reduction of their standard of living. I would be willing to buy government bonds mif it meant helping my fellow Americans go back to work and save their homes

These “solutions” are just ways to grasp at straws trying to maintain the current structure which is obviously failed. It may seem simplistic but I see the promotion of kitchen gardens, community gardens, farmers’ markets, and other independent and local community living as the beginning of a solution. If people weren’t so dependent upon corporations to feed them they wouldn’t be dependent upon the healthcare system to heal the disease caused by that “food”, petrol products and auto companies to get them to that “food”, and unemployment wouldn’t be so scary. This would help the environment, our bodies, and our economy will be healtier and our society stronger! That would be a great place to direct some stimulus money!

The issue is jobs are needed to date the money has missed the mark. The Hartford Insurance company is taking 3.4 billion dollars from TARP and announced yesterday that more jobs are being cut and out scourced to India at EXL Inc. The TARP funds were approved the same day the former president of the P&C operation was confirmed as under sec of the trea. The out going CEO ran a big ticket fund raiser for Sen Dodd when he was running for Pres. TARP sould help the folks in this country not anyone else.
Until the gov and business begin to act to bring honesty to the process we will continue to sink. Remeber the jobless claims are not a true measure as many folks are under employed, or not counted due to not recieving a check etc the true rate is at least double the posted rate Thank you

If the government will give $50.000 to $100.000 per family it will Definitely stimulate the economy, just think about it, people will just buy a new car, pay some debts, pay off there mortgages, invest on energy efficient appliances, energy efficient windows, invest on your own business, go on vacation etc… that will be the way to stimulate the economy not just adding $13.00 on you pay check like they did..

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

I enjoyed the show.

I was disappointed that you did not deal with the issue that a couple of web commentators made:

Backstop the States so that they do not have to make cuts in staffing and services; now is the time that State services are needed.

Perhaps another show on that.

Also look into the possibility of institutions spending more of their endowment to create local stimulus. See my Cambridge Chronicle piece last week.

I heard no discussion of the stimulus/work programs of the New Deal and how thier perfirmance would be instructive. the New Deal was very successful contrary to the right wing cannard that it was really the war that ended the depression. FDR created 4 million jobs in 2 months and the most successful program was the Civilian Works Administration admisistered by Harry Hopkins. It was successful because it put people directly to work on public works projects. the Pwa of Harold Ickes was less successful because of its snails pace in letting bids for government contracts, and of course that much of the money did not go to the demand side where it was, but rather to private contractors, who then managed the projects. The CWA also operated with a 1/3 the budget of the PWA, and was praised by republicans and democrats for its effectiveness. Sadly, Obama’s stimulus is much mor akin to the PWA model and was also dluted by the fight’s insistence on more tax cuts for business and a pittance directly to the demand side where it is needed. I have gleaned most of this information froma an excellent article on SLATE by C. Peters and T. Noah entitles “WRONG HARRY?” Even the right winger Henry Ford recognized the workers who could afford to buy what they built were good for business. They create the demand. And a note to Chrissy: We have a capitalist ECONOMY, we live in a DEMOCRATIC society, at least. Let us realize that economic systems exist to serv people, in a free society the people cannot be though to exist to serve an economic system. Any economic system is OK if it serves the needs of the people. For some applications that may be capatailist, or mercantilist, or under the right circumstances, socialist. At this point in our history the Capitalists clearly wield too much power and influence, to the detriment of both merchants and workers, and to the extent where it has become quasi-religious, and people often think capitalism and democracy are synonymous. They are clearly not.

Chrissy says we should have kitchen gardens, community gardens, farmers’ markets. Well I have turned most of the land around my little house into vegetable and flower gardens(you need to attract bees if you want a good a harvest) Well in practice this is a good idea, not cheap mind you. However this summer has been a disaster due to weather. The only thing growing well are lettuces, kale, collard greens and the like. The tropical plants, such as eggplant and tomato’s are not doing well.

We have local farmers markets, but they are expensive but given the rise in food at the big box stores this is an option that is kind of affordable.

We have a local farm selling meat, you can sign up for a weekly box, it comes to $9 per pound, this is not cheap.

They also do vegetable boxes which are pretty reasonable.

The cost of food is through the roof, 18 months ago I spent around $30 to $50 per week depending on what I was buying. Last week I went shopping and the bill was about $80 for the same amount of food. Our salaries have been going down, this year my wife had to take a pay freeze and her employer cut the retirement contribution to 1%!

Our health insurance has gone up with more restrictions.

The realities of our present American experience is looking pretty bleak. Are we heading towards a third world standard of living? Were the majority live in poverty and are ruled by oligarchs?

It does not help either that Mass is increasing the sales tax from 5% to 6.25%. Here we have the Feds trying to figure out the way out of this mess, while sending a bunch of money to states to help out, but our state just must do something to thwart those efforts. Thanks a lot Massachusetts!

Growing a garden is a good and all but one needs to remember that while the stuff is growing you still need to eat. The states such as Michigan which Chrissy mentions have less then three months to grow things. This is not for everyone, but she does have a point. During WW2 a lot of Americans grew victory gardens to offset rationing.

People should look up this period, Americans were very healthy during the war years due to rationing. However the elephant in the room here is that millions of unemployed men and women ended up working for the government via the military. Factories were at 24/7 shifts for production.

It is staggering to look at how many Liberty ships were built in a month.

When you look back at this period, I have to wonder, what happened to this country?

Alex this is due to state budgets and the laws regarding them. The governor of Massachusetts had no choice but to raise taxes. You think our taxes are high try California’s sales tax of 8% or New York’s which in some areas such as NYC is on average 8.5%.

The fed should have been on top of this, states needed to do there jobs as well by making sure pork spending was controlled. The fed should have offset the down turn for states so they did not have to raise sales taxes or lay off workers.

You could go shop in New Hampshire if this is an issue.

“You think our taxes are high try California’s sales tax of 8% or New York’s which in some areas such as NYC is on average 8.5%.”

I really like this argument – “You think our taxes are high?” Well, you think this economy is hard? You should have lived in the former USSR in the early 90s, like I did. You would know what “hard” is.

Anyway you cut it raising state sales taxes goes against the Feds’ policies of economic recovery. I know you can explain it but that’s the way it is.

Most of our fiancial problems in amerika, are common sense. pull our troops out of iraq and Afghanstan, stop this phony “war on terrorism”. which really has become a war on the constitution,and the american peoples’rights. Stop giving money to big business, and banks. stop funding these illegal wars. Start funding local communities, and small business.Stop letting these wall street bankers, loot our treasury. There are some many things wrong with America,however there is alot we can do to fix it. Stop voting for the same old republican and democrats, who are bought and paid for by the same people,who are ruining America.

David C – I am with you. Obama is not getting my vote this time around if he does not pull out our troops from Iraq and Afganistan and does not start on the path of creating public health care (although I sense that you, David C, would be against this one). Somehow I don’t believe this will happen under Obama.

The mere notion of economic stimulus is unbelieverly corrupt concept. It basically translates to market distortion performed at a grand scale by goverment beaurocrats using peoples hard earned money. These beaurocrats have nothing to loose and lots to gain as they become primary distributors of these money. As it happened in history over and over again most of them enrich themselves and thier cronies along the way. As of public benefits there will be none. Zero! And this is the most optimistic scenario. In reality, these money most likely add to already ennormous moral hazzard by rewarding failed and crooked businesses at the expense of successful and law obedient, promote goverment dependency and suppress motivation to succeed. We are entering the last act of drama called “Rome empire”

I’ll start by saying I’m not an economist, nor to do I know if the points I am about to bring up are factual but I feel the need to hear more on the topic.

I’d like to see more discussion on why we are at this point in the economy and that instead of trying to artificially correct it, that maybe this is the way it needs to be to correct itself.

An unwarranted war debt, and the financial industries greedy lending practices notwithstanding, I feel the problem is Americans pursuit of spending beyond our means. Examples being large credit debt and no savings, mortgages we can’t afford, wanting less expensive goods from outside the country instead paying the American price….the list goes on. Let me admit right here that I count myself among this group. While Americans do continue to work hard, be inventive, and creating the cutting edge there is no denying as a whole we have grown into a society of wanting/expecting more than we’ve earned. An unfortunate result of this society of excess is we’ve also come to expect to be saved from our mistakes instead of paying for them.

I’d offer that maybe our current economic situation is our society’s way of correcting itself. Maybe our society needs to dig itself out, suffer this hardship, and use the lessons to improve itself instead waiting for more handouts from the government to make things right. We should also consider that such adversity breeds ingenuity. I’m also no historian, but I suspect many a great invention and strong moral character was created as a result of the Great Depression. I would also suspect that these hardships can strengthen this country’s great need for better family values. Society would be forced to rely on those close to them instead of a government bailout. I’m all for social programs for those who truly cannot help themselves. I am not for programs that just prolong the problem instead of fixing it.
Therefore I say, “More Stimulus? No!” Continuing to spending money we don’t have is the very essence of the problem that put us here.

Alex where you lived before is not the issue.
It’s taxes. You don’t seem like you want to pay them or are not into paying them.
Why not move to a state, such as New Hampshire, and then the problem is solved. However you will find that the property taxes are higher in New Hampshire when compared to
Massachusetts. Your going to pay one way or another.
Personally I want more bang for my buck, as David states that to much money is going towards the military and so on.

“Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Meanwhile, corporations are greedily doing whatever they want without any government intervention. In many cases, their greed is doing a lot of individuals and the economy serious harm — as for example (just heard this) Blue Cross raising its rates next month by 17%. How many people, already stretched to the limit, will simply have to drop their health insurance? What about some credit card companies doubling their minimum payments starting in September? What will that do a) the economy and b) millions of people struggling to stay afloat until they can pay down their debt?

No Putney – it is not the issue whether I like to pay taxes or not. Right now the issue is whehter this tax increase contributes to the economic recovery or hurts it. My moving to NH would not change the fact that people strapped for cash as it is would have to plank out more for taxes without any commensurate improvement in services. And we already pay for this civilized society. Taxes are not low as it is, considering that we have to pay out of pocket for health care, education and retirement.

Are our taxes high? Well for our return on the dollar I would agree.

In some European countries they pay a lot more in taxes but get more in return, good health care and free or cheap higher education, excellent public education.

So it is relative. The rise in sales tax in Massachusetts might hurt the economy, but people are already cutting back. I know I am. The last time time bought a shirt I went to a second hand store and picked up 3 shirts for $10.

Perfectly good shirts as well.

What we need is regulation and here is how:

Capital markets are unstable. In the past there was no way to make them stable. But today we have computer power that can be used to make them stable.

By using the greater computer power of today we can have a much higher turn over of capital in the capital market. This higher turnover will make the market harder to game or control and the market will no longer have the unstable run ups or declines. Who can change or control the market when say 20% of the capital is trading each day?

So now that we have the compute power to provide for all these transactions that will smooth out the market how do we force people to turn over at a rate of 20% a day? Easy, put a cap gains tax of 0% (zero) on all gains of 7 days or less and put a cap gains tax of 90% of all gains of more than 7 days.

The likes of Yahoo, Micosoft and/or Sun Micro Systems will give us the systems that will provide automated software agents to support turning over one’s investments every 7 days (based on the specs you give the agent).

A system like this will make the financial markets work as smoothly as the local fruit market.

You people have not seen nothing yet. Capitol Hill is now totally owned by the Dems. This has not happened since the Carter days I believe, and do any of you remember those days? What scares me, is there is no check and balance so to speak. This could be a snow ball rolling down the hill to hell.

In The Book of Proverbs King Solomon once said … “The borrower is the lenders slave”. And the simple truth is—one can’t borrow from his master to purchase and obtain his lost liberty … one must pay it off. Yet America as a nation continues to borrow from her global masters, and by so doing, is sacrificing to bondage the lives, wealth and futures of her children and grandchildren. The current failing stimulus package was in no way intended for us to use to pay off our individual household or state debt, but rather to buy those things we’re slowly coming to realize we have no real need of. For our real need is not for more foreign stuff … but for liberty from this bitter bondage for ourselves and future generations of Americans. And not hollow consumerism, nor borrowing more from our current or future masters, can or will ever set us at liberty.

They said on the show that it’s a tragedy to have millions of people unemployed, and 10% unemployment is horrible and things along the same lines, so that’s why we need to spend money to keep that from happening.

Here’s my thought on this:

Unemployment is bad because people need money to support themselves and pay for things.

Well, how about forgiving people’s debts, so they don’t have to pay some of their bills? Like govt forgave banks, let banks forgive debtors.

And how about mandating that if a couple of people with kids are both unemployed or if a single parent is unemployed, making it mandatory to hire at least one of the parents?

Bush/Paulson’s main stimulus – the 3 page outline to payoff Wall ST the 1st 2 times.

Stimuli must be directed to those at the lowest income level + create jobs that put people to work in high unemployment rate areas. Only if disabled, elderly & long-term unemployed would push money into the economy as quickly as possible..

Those who want it to go as a high-earner tax break for “investment” forget that their business investments won’t go far if their customers & their customers’ customers don’t have the $$$ to buy their products/services.

Bush kept it too siimple & paid off his friends & donors the simplest way possible via Paulson. Pres. Obama /Geithner have not only made things too complicated + they paid off Wall ST again & didn’t touch the real economy with instant mortgage help + more cash to the lowest income/most numerous consumer base.

Dean Baker has it right, POTUS & VP took the “consensus” instead of one of the worst possible case. They underestimated the real economic problem & not the Wall ST/Bank problem that has been solved approx 5x now. 1) Bush/Paulson 2) bailouts 3) bailout 2 4) the multi-Trillion Treasury program & 5) AIG, GM, Chrysler – etc. which all pay back to the largest banks. So hit 5x & the real economy hasn’t gotten touched except for the “rebate” checks of GWB & BHO.

The simple truth is that this country stopped producing real goods – we outsourced manufacturing, import foreign labor to replace the middle class, and now it turns out our “services” are not that essential for the world economy. Our politicians turned us into a nation of lazy consumers, we printed worthless currency to pay for our consumption, and everybody thought that this will last forever.

The only way to turn economy around is to bring back the industries that made this country great. In order to do this we need to get rid of “experts” and politicians who got us into this mess.

The entire Obama economic team (Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, and Christina Romer) has been a total failure. They should all be fired immediately.

While Germany and France are hardly out of the recession both countries seem to be doing something right.

France has pumped a lot of money into shovel ready projects on infrastructure and construction which is already putting some of the unemployed back to work and there unemployment is below ours at about 8.5%.

Germany announced growth in exports while it is lower than they want it shows that they are heading out of the recession. Both countries have extensive social programs for both health care and unemployment, retraining and so on.

So if the French can do this why can’t we?
What’s wrong with this country?
Why is our government so dysfunctional?

When George the second became President, I had a full time job and was able to live comfortably, at least by my expectations. I now work two part time jobs, no benefits, no real expectations of any improvement in the near future. I have always lived under my income, so the only real debt I have is a medical bill(health insurance would have been twentyfive percent of my takehome pay back when my one current job was fulltime).
So now we reward the people who:spent more than they earned, got bonuses for persuading other people to live beyond their means, or ran ponzi schemes and got out while the going is good. I have slipped from the lower middle class to the working poor, and now I’m told it’s my duty to spend money I don’t have to make the economy improve for the people on top. To paraphrase an old Warren Zevon song “If you do they’ll screw you, if you don’t, they’ll screw you too”.
When is all this stimulus going to trickle down to people like me?
John Koester

Accept a 10 percent decline in standard of living? Mandate a decreased level of worker productivity? Give mortgages a “haircut”? This show had me howling mad and I’m a little dissapointed in you Tom. Comments like the above deserve to be checked a little more forcefully than “gee, I don’t know…” I can listen all day long to idiot blowhards on the radio but this show had me sitting in stunned silence the rest of the day. These people are dangerous, just as much as the neocons were when they had the run of things.

Wow nice pro-stimulus propaganda. Never have I heard so much Keynesian garbage in a single hour. Next time, why don’t you invite some real economists (Austrian economists like Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers, Tom Woods) on that actually understand economics. I suggest that everyone google “How an economy grows and why it doesn’t” and read Irwin Schiff’s simple comic for 15 minutes to learn simple economics.

The government ’stimulus’ hurts the economy, for every dollar the government spends on stimulus, is a dollar coming out of the *productive* sector. Even if we borrow the money, that money can no longer be borrowed by private industry to grow. Japan tried this stimulus nonsense for years – they paved every road in their country, and they still have NO economic growth since the 80s. Google the “Lost Decade”?

And yes, a lot of the stimulus money is going to politically connected cronies to be wasted on useless “projects”. Look how $400K of Americorps money was spend on washing the boss’ car (Google Kevin Johnson Americorps car wash). Don’t you think this money would be better left in the hands of the citizenry to spend as they see fit?

Lastly, I know that no one really cares about the rule of law any more, but perhaps it’s worth noting, that stimulus spending is not authorized anywhere in the Constitution. You know, that document that’s supposed to be the foundation of all our laws. Try reading it sometime and you’ll see that 99% of what the Federal Govt. does is expressly NOT ALLOWED by the 10th Amendment.

Here’s what we need to do to fix the economy –

#1 recall and replace 90% of the congress, both GOP and Dem. Anyone that voted for the bailouts should be the first to go

#2 with the new Congress, dramatically CUT spending in the Federal government, and the first place to start is in the Defense budget. We should pull out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, Korea, and cancel more weapons programs. We are all cutting back on our spending, so too should the federal government.

#3 cut federal income taxes commensurate with the budget cuts

#4 return to Constitutional small government

The feds should create a national job bank for 10,000,000 for a year at about $500,000,000. Immediately re-employ out of that fund laid off government and university people. Select other areas where the work needs to be done sooner or later for the private sector and create New Deal type work projects.

In that year have a new Bretton Woods to stabilize currencies, replace the Federal Reserve with the U.S. Mint, nationalize failed banks (as William Black said should be done by law), and get rid of Reaganonmics (outsourcing jobs to China, Mexico, etc, deregulation (eg banks to big to fail created by gutting antitrust), anti unions, budget busting tax cuts for the wealthy, an out of control military-industrial complex).

I said this months ago and little of it has been done and the economy is still shedding near one half million jobs a month. Check out William Black on Bill Moyers. So many callers to AirAmerica and NPR ask that the jobs be brought back from China and Mexico but I rarely hear it from Presidents, governors, or Congressman (actually only Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Saunders). The rest are all corrupt.

zack while your comments are interesting in a kind of libertarian way, your wrong, Congress can raise funds and spend them as they see fit.

The Constitution was not meant to be a document written in stone as an absolute. Witness amendments that have been added over the years.

I could argue that the 2nd amendment, which was a response to the British efforts to disarm their militias in the late 18th century is now obsolete.

More stimulus = more debt.
It’s high time we stop fooling ourselves and take our medicine. No more borrowing against our children’s future. We already own a national debt of about $11 trillion, or about $37,000 per person. Piling on more stimulus (debt) is immoral and amounts to taking money from a future generation. We need a balanced budget amendment – now. Oh yea, there will be plenty of pain, but who thinks its right to keep spending so much more than you take in. Somebody will eventually have to pay the debt and growing interest or default on it. Both are bad options for our economy and future.

No one would want their parents leaving them a huge pile of debt, but that is exactly what we are doing.
Zack has it right, we need to call BS on Keynes school of economics and his followers like Paul Krugman and start using common sense.

To the host, please get a few economists that have an opposing viewpoint – it would make for a much more interesting show.

Capital markets are unstable. In the past there was no way to make them stable. But today we have computer power that can be used to make them stable.

By using the greater computer power of today we can have a much higher turn over of capital in the capital market. This higher turnover will make the market harder to game or control and the market will no longer have the unstable run ups or declines. Who can change or control the market when say 20% of the capital is trading each day?

So now that we have the compute power to provide for all these transactions that will smooth out the market how do we force people to turn over at a rate of 20% a day? Easy, put a cap gains tax of 0% (zero) on all gains of 7 days or less and put a cap gains tax of 90% of all gains of more than 7 days.

The likes of Yahoo, Micosoft and/or Sun Micro Systems will give us the systems that will provide automated software agents to support turning over one’s investments every 7 days (based on the specs you give the agent).

A system like this will make the financial markets work as smoothly as the local fruit market.