Comments on: World Inside Out

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:59:23 +0000

Good questions. What amazes me is how a bunch of boneheads in New York and a bunch of boneheads in D.C. managed to get us into this mess ... the only thing that amazes me more is how we expect these same exact boneheads to get us out!

How am I reacting? With caution, but with calm. And what's the best way to avoid the fear-uncertainty-doubt? Turn off the news. Really, the talking-heads don't have a monopoly on thought about what's going on, so don't give in to them.

I'm not advocating we ignore the perils, of course. In fact, I've seen a great plan to get us out of this, in 3 steps.

1 - Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages. This would cost $50 billion - a fraction of what they're demanding now - and would instantly create a market for these bonds, thus creating liquidity.
2 - Remove mark to market accounting rules for two years on only subprime Tier III bonds/mortgages. This move creates patience in the market and has an immediate stabilizing effect on failing and ailing banks—and it costs the taxpayer nothing.
3 - Remove the capital gains tax completely. Investors will flood the real estate and stock market in search of tax-free profits, creating tremendous—and immediate—liquidity in the markets. Again, this costs the taxpayer nothing.

This plan, called the "Common Sense Fix", could be enacted very quickly, and two of the steps would cost us *nothing*.

In fact, the only people I see lose in this plan are:
1 - the boneheads in NY who won't get $700 billion
2 - the boneheads in D.C. who won't get more unconstitutional power and authority thanks to a "crisis"

Your thoughts?

For more details on this plan, go here:
http://www.daveramsey.com/media/pdf/the_common_sense_fix.pdf

By: nmw

nmw — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:57:31 +0000

Good article, John -- and I am particularly happy to see a strong response level developing. As I noted in my response ( http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/10/01/as-the-world-turnsinside-out/#comment-2211 ), Google is now becoming a major disappointment to not only the tech industry but also the entire market economy: Google's search engine (which used to be the primary focus of their attention -- indeed, there was a time when they wrote into their mission statement that it was their exclusive focus) no longer functions very well at all. As a one-size fits-all engine, in can do little more than return domain names (such as amazon.com, ebay.com, hotels.com, etc.) and (as I argued in the article) it has repeatedly failed as "one-size fits-one-campaign" engine, because the people at the controls of Google's machinery manipulate the results to suit their own interests.

In short: Google's claim to having an "algorithm" has become a farce.

By: Bobby Charlton

Bobby Charlton — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:05:35 +0000

Typo: ...about how this financial crisis effects small business...

Should be 'affects'