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What If It Doesn't Work?
What's Plan B for the economy? We've spent nearly a tril over the last six months bailing out financial institutions and buying TARP assets at inflated prices. Both parties hopes we'll overlook that they didn't provide for oversight of the spending of that tril. It's only money and we'll forget pretty soon anyway, won't we? We always have before.
We're going to spend another tril on "stimulating" the economy. Around $820B right now but there'll be more, direct and indirect, count on it. I can't quite describe how that stimulates me. You probably think that people like you and me are going to get big shares of the money to spend/stimulate because, after all, it's our money. Nope. 500 bucks or so each, maybe some minor tax cuts, that's all we can be trusted with. Not exactly a new Lexus. I mean, Caddy.
The lion's share of the money is going to major banks... again. We can trust them, can't we? Who could blame you for asking "Aren't those the same people who got us into this mess?" And yes they are, overseen by the same folks who overspent $78B of your money on TARP assets just a few months ago. $78B is a LOT of money. A tril is a lot more.
All this is by way of asking, what happens if the stimulus plan doesn't work? We can't do it again, the plan uses up all our money. Maybe not all, but all the government has to spend right now. If we need much more, if the plan doesn't work and work darn well, who's left to tap? China, the Saudis, our home-grown rich? The latter are already getting out of Dodge (hello, Dubai!) and the other two are waiting, lurking and planning their own strategies to sop up the stimulus gravy.
When the worst seems to have passed, on that blessed day you can expect payback time, that time when interest rates and gas prices and commodities will spike prices higher than you could ever imagine. The west, especially the US, has few real friends. It's every country for itself. Witness Russia's energy aggression on top of its real and threatened aggression. What are we going to do about it? What CAN we do if we spend our future now... and it doesn't work?
There's only going to be us left to fix what we didn't break, to pay for the excesses of those who robbed us, to turn our backs on the friends who once trusted us absolutely.
God willing, the plans will work and we'll put this crisis behind us in fairly short order. Maybe our leaders will actually lead us out of our wilderness. Maybe fraud, waste and abuse will diminish. Maybe we'll each personally commit to sacrificing for the greater good of our country and our fellow Americans. Maybe we'll buy only what we can afford and be content with less. Maybe the people we give our money to will use it wisely, even return it someday.
Maybe... but what if it doesn't work?
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. Will Rogers
We're going to spend another tril on "stimulating" the economy. Around $820B right now but there'll be more, direct and indirect, count on it. I can't quite describe how that stimulates me. You probably think that people like you and me are going to get big shares of the money to spend/stimulate because, after all, it's our money. Nope. 500 bucks or so each, maybe some minor tax cuts, that's all we can be trusted with. Not exactly a new Lexus. I mean, Caddy.
The lion's share of the money is going to major banks... again. We can trust them, can't we? Who could blame you for asking "Aren't those the same people who got us into this mess?" And yes they are, overseen by the same folks who overspent $78B of your money on TARP assets just a few months ago. $78B is a LOT of money. A tril is a lot more.
All this is by way of asking, what happens if the stimulus plan doesn't work? We can't do it again, the plan uses up all our money. Maybe not all, but all the government has to spend right now. If we need much more, if the plan doesn't work and work darn well, who's left to tap? China, the Saudis, our home-grown rich? The latter are already getting out of Dodge (hello, Dubai!) and the other two are waiting, lurking and planning their own strategies to sop up the stimulus gravy.
When the worst seems to have passed, on that blessed day you can expect payback time, that time when interest rates and gas prices and commodities will spike prices higher than you could ever imagine. The west, especially the US, has few real friends. It's every country for itself. Witness Russia's energy aggression on top of its real and threatened aggression. What are we going to do about it? What CAN we do if we spend our future now... and it doesn't work?
There's only going to be us left to fix what we didn't break, to pay for the excesses of those who robbed us, to turn our backs on the friends who once trusted us absolutely.
God willing, the plans will work and we'll put this crisis behind us in fairly short order. Maybe our leaders will actually lead us out of our wilderness. Maybe fraud, waste and abuse will diminish. Maybe we'll each personally commit to sacrificing for the greater good of our country and our fellow Americans. Maybe we'll buy only what we can afford and be content with less. Maybe the people we give our money to will use it wisely, even return it someday.
Maybe... but what if it doesn't work?
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. Will Rogers
Views: 12
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by LC-Hawk on
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I don't have an answer. But, since we had a President that loved pampering the rich, and that helped get us in this mess, why not try another strategy?
BTW- I am NOT blaming GW....I am blaming Regan and all the men who followed that thought that private industry would make us all rich, or solve economic pitfalls like Recession. Trickle Down has not worked. It does not work because of the greed at the top.
So why not try a Rooseveltian approach and start at the bottom and work up? Just a thought.
I am willing to give it a try
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