November 6, 2008

OK, you're now the President of the United States. Presto. You've inherited this mess. Fix it. What do you do?

Give me your top five ideas.

I know, I know, many of you are saying FUBAR, or Let it Burn, but go with me here.

IF you were in charge, and had a Congress and American people willing to go along, and you wanted to get the stock market, jobs, banking, housing, our economy and the world economy back on track post haste, what would you do, first month in office?

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

79 comments:

Anonymous said...

#1) Double the contribution limits to Roth IRAs

#2) Raise the capital gains tax

#3) Provide LOW Rate community reinvestment loans to folks with 30% down

#4) Perp walk and Punish Mozillo, Perry, Casey Serrin, to provide a vivid and real consequence to
gaming the system

#5) Let banks that are too big to fail, do exactly that, Fail but ensure loses for customers

#5)

Anonymous said...

1. Throw away Obama's economic plan. (smaller government and fewer entitlement programs not more)
2. Eliminate the Federal Reserve
3. Eliminate the Department of Education (power to the states!)
4. Pass a balanced budget ammendment
5. Most importantly, condemn Fractional-Reserve Banking as the real reason for the crash.

list courtesy of your old friend Ron Paul.

Anonymous said...

1) kiss my master's asses
2) do what they say
3) lie to the people
4) run for re-election
5) collect my graft

Anonymous said...

I agree with deepcgi and Mr. Paul.

Anonymous said...

1. Eliminate the Fed
2. Return to the gold standard
3. End the wars and declare victory
4. Nationalize the banks for 4 years
5. New GI bill to help wounded troops
6. Appoint bush as rose garden gardener

Frank R said...

1. Abolish IRS and replace with FairTax

2. Immediately begin domestic/ANWAR oil drilling and tell OPEC they're finished

3. Pass a balanced budget amendment

4. Pass an amendment requiring any bills introduced into Congress to have Constitutional justification

5. Eliminate Dept of Education and drastically reduce student aid for college (forcing ripoff colleges to slash tuition, a cancer on our economy

6. (BONUS) Repeal Housing Gambler Bailout Bill

Of course it's all easier said than done - chances are that NO president could even pass one of those in a single term - but it's a wish list :)

Anonymous said...

1) Energy independence Energy independence Energy independence

2) Energy independence

3) Phase out of Iraq beginning immediately.

4) Massive education initiative

5) Health care reform

Anonymous said...

1. Pull out of Iraq and negotiate peace force with the United Nations.
2. Cap all Bailout Bank CEO pay to $500,000 for salary and $1,000,000 for bonuses for ONE year. The proceeds of profits to be distributed to the shareholders (a bit of a trickle down here). Promote a system that signs on to this for ONE YEAR.
3. Increase the size of PeaceCorps, AmeriCorps and teach for America to 1 in 3 graduating college students. This will repair our reputation within out own country as well as abroad.
4. Triple for ONE YEAR the Roth IRA contributions.
5. Lay off 1 in 2 TSA (Thousands Standing Around) employees. This is by far the biggest waste of taxpayer money.

Anonymous said...

1) Arrest Bush and Cheney and the rest of the shadow government. Scatter the CIA to the winds like JFK wanted to do so long ago.

2) Slash the military and defense budget and bring back all military from overseas. Begin a program to gradually slash government bureacracies.

3) Shutdown the Fed and introduce a gold, silver and commodity backed currency. Aim to abolish the un-Constitutional income tax once spending has been drastically curtailed.

4) Repeal all of the police state and national security state measures like the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, John Warner Defense Authorization Act and expose Rex84 and all other illegal government acts that have been hidden from the American public under the blanket of "national security".

5) Amend the Constitution so that any public official that violates the Constitution is immediately fired.

There's a whole lot more I would do but you only gave us 5 options.

Anonymous said...

1. Hire the best minds I can find to fill crucial slots, and not just the same old 'departments'.

2. Begin withdrawing troops from Iraq to stop the insane waste of people and money.

3. Begin prosecution of those responsible for the economic morass and ferret out any remaining crooks.

4. Take whats' left of the 'bailout money' (if there is any) and give a rebate check to taxpayers to stimulate holiday spending.

5. Close 75% of government offices that are doing absolutely nothing but further wasting the taxpayer's money and use the savings to hire new teachers and construction workers to remodel and improve our school system. Make education a priority.

Anonymous said...

1. Loot all I can while there's still something to be had.
2. Look for a safe havens for my loot and myself.
3. discreetly transfer my assets out of the country.
4. Generously reward the people that helped my loot the treasury and helped me get the goodies off shore.
5. Get the hell out of here, see ya suckers!

But I guess that's exactly what's happening right now, right here.

Anonymous said...

1) eliminate the bi-cameral form of government. switch to uni-cameral - senate with 4 year terms. Hasta la vista, House of Reps.

2) raise capital gains taxes on investments which are NOT initial public offerings and not held greater than 10 years.

3) eliminate the standard deduction, standard exemption, and mortgage deduction. well, really eliminate all deductions.

4) allocate cost of government to each citizen and every business type (corp., s-corp, llc, et al and not for profits)on a weighted average basis based on the sum total of any and all income types, before expenses. bill every citizen and legal entity quarterly! costs would no longer be hidden under my administration.

5) doctors offered limited liability for services performed under a voluntary national health care plan.

'Who's the party? UNI-Party'

Anonymous said...

1)Eliminate the Federal Reserve(thanks deepcgi), and reinstate the gold standard.

2)Start a program to rebuild our infastructure;

- build a decent passenger rail network that extends to half the towns in the country
- build more parks
- upgrade our air traffic control system
- upgrade our electrical grid (up to 1/2 of our power supply is lost from supplier to customer by the way)
- build a national bicycling and pedestrian network
- improve our internet network
- build a national renewable energy network and tax credit system to encourage everyone from big utilities to individuals to invest in renewables and innovation.

Our infrastructure is often marginal for a world class economy.

3)Rebuild our school system, make training and practical knowledge a priority. Our secondary school system is a disaster.

4)Remove the corporate special interest group lobbyists from government influence (Oh boy I'm really dreaming now).

Anonymous said...

5) Tell people the good old days of social security, medicare, and medicade are over. They're not entitled to unlimited life support in their dying years. For every year a dying old person is kept alive on life support you could give a hundred young people decent health care and improve their quality of life for their lifetimes. It's time to get realistic about health care.

blogger said...

A lot of you are still in HP mode

Try to step out of that for a bit.

I'm looking for five serious suggestions.

My 'burn 'em at the stake" suggestions would be things like execute cheney for treason, go with a 2% flat tax, blah blah blah, but that's not serious. I'm saying be serious, get your "I'm now the freaking president of the united states" hat on, and have at it.

Here's my five. Serious. Big bombshells, but watch for some of these to come close:

1) Solve housing crash: Government refi offer for every mortgage in the US up to 95% of current appraised value, 5% fixed 40 year or 50 year mortgage, must refi by June 2009. And yes, create entity to buy from the banks the foreclosed and REO homes to hold, maintain, rent out and sell eventually, most likely at a profit

2) Solve stock market crash: $200,000 limit on 401ks and Roths for 2008 and 2009, and 10% cap gains, 0% tax on savings, no mandatory withdrawals for 2008, 2009 and 2010

3) Spend like never before on infrastructure: $5 trillion, 10 year investment in green energy transformation and $5 trillion, 10 year investment on transportation

4) Pull the US military out of every country on earth within 36 months and close all the bases. Yes, this is serious. We've collapsed, we're broke. It's time for other regions and countries to police themselves. Contribute troops and military to international peacekeeping (UN, NATO)only.

5) Phase in and raise minimum retirement age to 70 effective 2018 and adjust from then on based on life expectancy data

Also, Fed rate to 0%, TARP increased to $2 trillion, stimulus of $1000 per household paid out electronically $250 a month for 4 months on debit card

Yes, massive government spending will now come in to fill the gap left by the massive dropoff in consumer spending.

Watch for us to inflate our way out of this massive deflation.

I'm just telling you what's coming. Watch for it.

Anonymous said...

the problem with drilling here is breakeven cost.

after any new rigs are installed, OPEC and many of the other oil rich, foreign government owned petro companies can drive the world price of oil below the US breakeven point for a very long period of time and drive domestic companies out of business.

only after oil crossed $60 did US supply really come on line - a lot of capped wells became profitable again and were re-opened.

the idea of drilling here is great...but uneconomical long term without conservation and increased, dramatically increased, fuel efficiency.


and to add to my list....

6) obtain line item veto powers.

UNI-Party.

Anonymous said...

Keith, what about you?

Anonymous said...

1. Buy a gun
2. Buy ammo
3. learn how to shoot
4. buy non-perishable food
5. learn how to kill and dissect domesticated animals for food.

Anonymous said...

1. print $5 trillion
2. fake inflation and employment statistics with media super PR blitz about how great things now are
that will fool the sheeple
3. open borders
4, print more money
5. snort some blow and get some vibrators for Michelle to chill out

Anonymous said...

1) Secret arrests, torture, rendition, Guantanomo, domestic wiretapping, Rex84 internment camps - GONE

2) Overseas military commitments and military budget - GONE.

3) Fed - GONE

4) IRS - GONE

5) CIA - GONE

Anonymous said...

1) a line by line audit of the federal budget (use McCain's hatchet and Barry's scalpel)

2) $2/gallon national gas tax + tire tax, SUV/truck tax, luxury car tax, motor oil tax, spark plug tax, RV tax, etc. (the proceeds go toward reviving the passenger rail & rail freight system)

3) read the 14th amendment on the air, explain that if gay people want to be married it's nobody else's God-damned business: take calls Washington Journal style-if necessary

4) Attorney General Fitzgerald (w/ special dedicated mortgage fraud unit based in Guantanamo Bay, if you catch my drift)

5) ...and as much as I hate to say it: RTC II

*BONUS*
Legalize weed!

Anonymous said...

Here are my economic suggestions
1] raise minimum wage $3/hr. All other wages will go correspondingly and housing will be fair priced.
2] 10K IRA and Roth IRA limits.
3]first $36K of tax free. This includes employee FICA tax.
No distinction between dividends,capital gains and earned income. Income is income
Tax $36K-$150K at 25%. Tax $150K-$1M at 33%. Tax $1M+ at 50%.FICA no maximum employer or employee
4]any economic stimulus to be rebuilding infrastructure.
5]Sales Tax of 10% to support a public health system.Abolish Medicare and Title XIX

blogger said...

Here's five more, not that I'm in favor of but that desperate leaders might do to stop the downfall

1) Open border with Mexico and Canada, offer citizenship to all Mexicans and Canadians (with some red tape etc)

2) I mentioned this on HP but $10,000 match on down payment for any house purchased in 2009, $10,000 additional tax credit if it's a foreclosure or REO

3) Sell off government assets and sell and lease-back government land and property.

4) Lower corporate tax rate to 15%, increase death tax to 60%

5) $1 tax on gallon of gas and pack of cigs starting in 2010 increased by 25c every year through 2020.

Anonymous said...

First, I'd make the stock market go down 10% two days after I was elected. It would be part of my glorious Four Year Plan, and that will surely make the Bourgeoisie feel the sting today for not having shared their wealth with the Proletariat.

Wait, you mean that is exactly what has happened? Obama steals all my ideas.

Anonymous said...

1) Tell people the economy was a total fraud

2) Tell people they will have to tighten their belts

3) Default on all debt

4) Restore the tariffs

5) Bring back sound money, and watch the dollar skyrocket.

6) Let the market determine interest rates

7) Invest in the one thing that actually grows an economy: technology.

In 30 years, we will have quadrupled the economy.

Anonymous said...

1 -- Appoint qualified people to government posts instead of "graduates" of liberty baptist u.

2 -- Vigorously enforce conflict of interest rules (which exist!!).

3 -- Suspend the various bailout packages and let the failures fail.

4 -- Move forward on campaign agenda (taxes, health care, climate change, ...).

5 -- Get on with repairing the rest of 8 years of damage to our reputation, including ending the Iraq disaster.

Owner Earnings said...

Set aside $500 Billion for food banks for the people that lose their jobs and then let the market take care of itself.

Ready to play said...

1. Hold a press conference and be brutally honest about the mess we're in and the consequences of attempting to get by with same old policies.
2. Emphasize upcoming plan to create jobs through infrastructure, new companies and bold environmental initiatives. Ask the public to do the same/participate and ask them to also be patient. He could also mention that ultimately it does boil down to real estate.
3. Use Bretton Woods II as opportunity to unveil new economic initiatives to reverse current course, cut costs, increase efficiency and instill calm over the markets, i.e., Lower capital gains tax to 10% with a time horizon, announce tax incentives for ass saving ideas, maybe close the markets for a week, etc.
4. Draft "Total Transparency Bill" to restore trust and confidence on Wall Street and Main Street.
5. Send a private letter to all the world leaders expressing a detailed agenda aimed at restoring our credibility, capacity and peaceful intentions, and include reminding them how uncooperative in saving their ass that we can be if necessary.

I also agree that distributing newly printed money can be going on in the background while setting up it's most effictive use.

blogger said...

Look, there's no question, I'm early on the being positive thing. About a year early probably. I was early on the housing bubble too - it kept inflating even after I thought it couldn't go any higher.

Markets stay irrational much longer than you can stay solvent if you bet against them. But eventually they return to their senses.

I think 0% interest rates and trillions in government spending, in addition to a massive change of collective consciousness when it comes to trust, hope and optimism starting in 2009 sets America and the world up for a very very nice recovery. But first, the shitstorm continues. And I want to see Obama and Congress making the right moves. Obama I have confidence in. Congress worries me beyond words.

First step - I want the sons of bitches who got us into this mess arrested. Mozilo, Fuld, Perry, Dodd and the rest. Trust will not return until we have a government who again backs up that we're a nation of laws.

And as of today, we still are not.

Anonymous said...

1) Give America (and the world) a vision of something amazing. Announce a 10-year plan to put mankind on Mars. Galvanize the economy by developing the R&D, technology, and industry necessary to accomplish this. Foster international cooperation by making this a global effort. The Japanese handle one aspect, the Chinese another, the Europeans another, etc. We'll be too busy going into space to fight each other.

Paul E. Math said...

1) legalize marijuana

2) tax the shit out of marijuana

3) eliminate the deductibility of mortgage/heloc/heloan interest

4) 'Volckerize' the Fed (change its mandate to a singular focus on minimizing inflation, not economic growth or full employment)

5) prosecute the guilty (mozilo, perry, etc)

Paul E. Math said...

"2) I mentioned this on HP but $10,000 match on down payment for any house purchased in 2009, $10,000 additional tax credit if it's a foreclosure or REO"

...?

Keith, you know this money doesn't actually benefit the buyer, right? I know you know this. I know you know this money might as well just be given to the seller because it just raises everyone's offer by a cumulative $20k. It's just another way of bailing out the banks if you offer the incentive for REO. You must know this.

Or are you just saying that they will do this, not that they should do this? Because this does stand a very good chance of passing since few people will realize that it is just the sellers who benefit from the program.

blogger said...

On the $10k, it's 'may' do this. And yes, this will prop up home prices, which is what they want to do. At the same time, it'll trick sheeple into overpaying for homes (compared to renting)

Watch for it...

Anonymous said...

1) eliminate the federal reserve

2) bring our troops home, from iraq, germany, japan, korea. we can begin immediate withdrawal from germany right away, things are pretty stable there.

3) get rid of fractional lending

4) get rid of government agencies that aren't/can't do the job they were created to do. dept of education would be the first to go.

5) pass legislation to increase savings

6) balance the federal budget and keep it balanced via spending cuts and maybe a bit of a tax increase.

7) No new spending!


once we get our financial house in order we can start addressing other problems, like healthcare.

Roccman said...

1) ban all commercials
2) ban all private pools
3) require gardens
4) require everyone to read catton's overshoot
5) 3 day work weeks

Anonymous said...

Watch for us to inflate our way out of this massive deflation.

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

agree, inflation will be the government's solution.

Prepare for it.

Anonymous said...

I don't think there is any better way to jump start the economy than to immediately promote the full development of alternative energy. We know we can't continue to pay for expensive imported oil indefinitely, or, even worse, to involve ourselves in more disastrous wars that are centered about those imports such as our various military adventures in the Persian Gulf over the last 17 years. Putting up windmills, developing natural gas to the fullest extent possible, developing biomass and other alternatives could gainfully employ millions at a considerably lower overall cost than maintaining the present system of using yesterday's fuel, petroleum.

Anonymous said...

Are you ready to serve your savior, Obama?

America Serves

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

Anonymous said...

1.Begin to build a new infastucture based domestic manufacturing and materials. Develop a sustainable growth model relating to this new shift. Develop programs that encourage invention and inovation and assist in producing these products here in the US.

2. Think green. Develop and implement a plan to reduce fossil fuel consumption by 20%-40% over 10 years. Begin to focus on raising taxes on any petro-chemical usage in the US.

3. Let free market decide where it is going. Use bail out funds to pay for the difference in housing prices for those underwater. Make all mortgages fixed at 5% untill paid off. Tax credits for those who purchase a house based on fair market valuations(almost impossible, I know).

4. Step wise increase the Fed interest rate to encourage saving and get the idea of jump starting the debt engine out of the collective conscious of Dept of Treas, Wall Street, and private citizens.

5. Remain positive for the people of the US as this problem works its self out and try to get them to understand that there is more pain to come before any healing can occur

Anonymous said...

Clinton appointed Emanuel to mortgage giant Freddie Mac's board, a post that paid him at least $292,774 in director's fees, according to a financial disclosure report Emanuel filed in 2002 when he ran for Congress. Emanuel served on the board when Freddie Mac misstated its earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002. When the problem was uncovered in 2003, three top Freddie Mac executives were forced out
-------------------------------------



Great.

Anonymous said...

One step solution:
Legalize marijuana and tax, license and regulate the hell out of it and all it's collateral industries.
Coconutz!

Anonymous said...

Clinton appointed Emanuel to mortgage giant Freddie Mac's board, a post that paid him at least $292,774 in director's fees, according to a financial disclosure report Emanuel filed in 2002 when he ran for Congress. Emanuel served on the board when Freddie Mac misstated its earnings by $5 billion for 2000-2002. When the problem was uncovered in 2003, three top Freddie Mac executives were forced out



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

kind of like having an oil industry insider as VP.....

Anonymous said...

1) de facto rescind the bailout by telling the next treasury secretary not to spend a red cent of the money. the president can do this because treasury reports to the president.

2) abolish the capital gains tax.

3) right-size the Federal govt.: eliminate the departments of energy, education, hhs, etc. and reduce the NIH's budget...a sinkhole for the most part. severely reduce the DOT's budget. This department is a waste, generally, and the money can be better spent by the State DOT's. while our roads are a mess, these idiots are putting up new types of florescent yellow-green signs and new reflecting signs all over the place...they aren't needed at all and are a distraction to drivers. clearly they are not spending our money correctly.

4) Eliminate the Federal Reserve and have the competitive marketplace determine the overnight lending rate.

5) Pull troops out of Europe and Japan.

Anonymous said...

silly wabbit,

the stick market has moved 10% in 2 hours recently.

Seriously, a 10% drop in 2 days is boring these days.

Anonymous said...

Call it HP mode...

But the USA needs a severe recession. Those who leveraged up stupidly need to go bankrupt - the individuals who bought houses the couldn't afford and the institutions that bought the paper.

Americans need to lose their entitlement attitude and realize that if they want to be "rich" they need to work hard, not win the lottery by bying a house. A decade of being unable to afford to eat without begging others for assistance might just learn them that.

The manufacturing needs to be rebuilt - this bit should do itself due to the dollar falling and hence US manufacturers being price competitive with China and the starving Americans willing to actually work in those factories so they can eat without begging.

The government should just stay out of the way and let the house of cards fall down. Inflating prices just means we have to go through it all again...

Anonymous said...

Here's the scoop on Obama's picks for Secretary of the Treasury:

Obama’s Treasury Candidates: Old Guard Of The Corporate Elite

Geithner (and Biden) are both Bilderbergers. The Bilderbergers are what we refer to as the international banking elite that are moving us towards globalism and the degredation of US sovereignty.

In other words, they are the New World Order.

Anonymous said...

1. Look out for Medvedev (Putin).
2. Look out for Iran.
3. Look out for Afghanistan.
4. Look out for Venezuela.
5. Just look out.

Owner Earnings said...

Keith, you need to get js-kit.com comments like CR and Mish. Then your blog can really take off.

Anonymous said...

And it came to be know as

OBAMANOMICS

Anonymous said...

1. Raise tax rates back up to pre-reagan levels.

2. Confiscate all wealth from Wall Street crooks.

3. Start hearings and trials with the intention of jailing the Wall Street crooks which will restore some confindence that crooks get punished.

4. Deport republicans.

5. Sterilize their children.

Anonymous said...

1) Nullify all credit default swaps as contracts not in the public interest (Ben Stein's idea).

2) Flex-fuel mandate for all new cars sold in U.S. by 2015 allowing a greater usage of ethanol in U.S. (Robert Zubrin's idea)

3) Set the age of eligibility to pay into Medicare health insurance and receive it's benefits at 18 (not sure who came up with this but not my idea).

4) No more bailouts for financial institutions unless the government takes an active ownership stake in them in order to make sure they actually lend money.

5) Reconsider the private retirement accounts to supplement or replace Social Security. This would involve a strict 50% total stock index and 50% total bond index investment structure that would not change throughout the life of the person (close to GWB's idea).

Anonymous said...

1.It appears that everyone who is in the know understands that the root of the financial/credit problem revolves around the housing market(opened the minds for real change).
Nearly everyone is aware that housing prices are falling and the
scramble to fix the fall is in high gear. I suggest that a starting point to the mark to market value of the MBS securities be historical norms (how many times have you said it's the P/E Keith). It is well understood and accepted that prices in a normal
sustainable market are about 3 times median income for any area, with prime coastal properties demanding a slight premium. The problem is that investors are not in the market and will not re-enter the market until fundamentals return. I think it would be fairly easy to value
any MBS by simply sorting the tranches by zip code and through the Census Bureau get the median income for the zip code and apply 3 times median income value to each mortgage. This would establish a fair mark to market value of the actual underlaying assets regardless of the original or current MBS value. This would make transparent the historical value of each MBS from which the markets could become whole again. Investors will object but they should understand that this is the best time to take the hit and move on. We are probably at the highest point in earnings and income for some time to come.
Regardless of what happens with the bailout, the economy will be stagnant or flat at best. If the economy contracts sevearly
which seems most likely, wages will be pressured and a decline in
area median income will further depress the 3 times median value of the MBS's. Now is the best time to revalue these MBS's for all
parties and counter parties. This would then allow the markets to
return to normal overnight. The derivatives behind these MBS's will take a hit but this spreads the risk and losses across the market as evenly as possible.(I am spreading the wealth) Attempting to create a re-inflate market will
only make things worse by debasing the dollar and prolonging the
unaffordable level of home prices.
2. Revalue the reserve currency to a mix of gold, GDP, Natural resources.
3. Eliminate the Federal Reserve as it now exsits, Nationalize its assets which are ours anyway. Limit the surviving dealer banks to 10 times leverage with a goal of zero inflation in 10 years.
4. Let the lemmings we raised around the world follow.
5 Rinse and repeat.
Steve

Anonymous said...

1) prosecute the most guilty with existing laws -- wish someone would pull a Howard Hughes and point the finger back at the most corrupt politicians during a hearing

2) end taxes on savings to encourage it; replace income tax with some sort of consumption tax on non-necessities to encourage savings and hard work; increase transparency of the fed

3) legalize hemp for industrial use. possibly legalize marijuana if it doesn't increase mental disorders or birth defects.

4) cut money spent on destruction overseas and non-necessities. use that money on health care first. poor health and ER overuse affects all of us. perhaps force health insurance companies to offer a baseline level of coverage for necessities to all who want it for the same within reason price regardless of health condition. taxpayers cover the fee for those who cannot afford it. those who can afford more than baseline coverage can opt to pay a higher price for that. if there are substantial negative unintended consequences, try something else until we find something better. uninsured & insured should not live in fear of not having affordable, basic medical care.

5) elect a pool of lobbyists who represent the public; force private interest lobbyists to match a certain % of whatever they spend on lobbying into a fund for the public lobbyists to add more public input

consultant said...

1) I'd announce to the nation that I am going to sign bills to revoke every single policy of the Bush Administration. Every one.

I'd announce the date, invite the press, put it on C-Span, web stream it live. I'd have an Orthopedic surgeon on standby, and put a cute female nurse at my side. Then I would start signing the papers, and keeping signing, until I had revoked every single piece of ill formed, contemptible, idiotic policy that was produced by the most corrupt and ignorant administration in the history of these United States.

2) Then I'd take a short break.

3) Have my Attorney General indict Bush, Cheney and key players in the REIC.

4) Take a short break.

5) Announce new policies and investments in energy independence, healthcare, and mass transit (very important).

Anonymous said...

1. Allow parents to purchase homes for children without paying a 40%+ gift tax.

2. Increase Death Tax to 75% with a $5 million exclusion.

3. Legalize marijuana and tax it to death. Take the profits out of the hands of syndicated crime.

4. Increase income and SS taxes (substantially) for those making over 250k/year. Tax bonuses even higher.

5. Run an EXTENSIVE "lower your price" advertising campaign and do my best to educate people that the appreciation was FAKE.

6. Reach out to foreign nations and improve relations starting immediately. We all have to share this little ball in space and if you think about it...it's really not that big.

7. Work on truly improving the disparity of income in the country. The rich will still be rich to their hearts content...the poor just won't be so destitute.

Anonymous said...

P.S. Keith.

When 1BR condos are still going for 500k, 10 or 20k isn't much of a help.

I'd plan on lowballing the price more than that. If the owners know that the seller is going to get a 10k GIFTED downpayment match (the tax credit is a joke) they won't negotiate as much...dumb as it is.

But...they just want you to overpay so you can overpay on your property taxes.

Anonymous said...

"1) Solve housing crash: Government refi offer for every mortgage in the US"

"Also, Fed rate to 0%, TARP increased to $2 trillion, stimulus of $1000 per household"

Is this blog being run by the real Keith? Or was he jailed and a replacement appointed by Ben Bercracky?

Let the homedebtors suffer! Let every one of them who were so smart, let them find out how smart they are now. I want blood, financial blood in the streets. Someone has to pay for the massive stupidity of the last decade.

Anonymous said...

1. Establish a national usury law so that credit card lenders can't play "beggar thy neighbor" among the state governments to shop for the most lenient rules. Let the maximum rate float over the T-Bill rate.

2. Change the bankruptcy code so that mortgage loans on residences can be stripped down in a chapter 13 reorganization.

3. Require that any loan-originating institution keep at least 50% of its loans in its own portfolio. Any loans sold into the secondary market should be randomly selected, to prevent cherry-picking.

4. Put a tax of one penny per gallon on gasoline at the pump, and raise it one more penny every month until we reach energy independence.

5. Remove the protection that private student lenders now have under the bankruptcy code. Cut funding for gov't guaranteed student loans by 50%, and by 100% for most of the proprietary schools. Do not allow student loan borrowers to borrow more than their current tuition. No more paying for rent and groceries with student loan proceeds.

Anonymous said...

1. eliminate taxes on savings and investments
2. eliminate income tax, replace w/ consumption tax (but not on food)
3. get rid of the Fed
4. no more bailouts
5. leave Iraq, Durkadurkastan, South Korea, etc

Anonymous said...

I do agree with the gas tax idea though.

The gas tax to start should be $2/gallon to compensate for all the unaccounted for externalities of motor vehicle use. Although like most of the above ideas, it is political toxic waste.

And Keith, what about the Fed?

Anonymous said...

Arnold

are you F*cking Nuts.. are you a Girly Man. I cant believe i Voted for you twice.. What the HELL was I thinking ?? What ever happened to "tearing up the DAMN Credit Cards. You have screwed our the state of California... You should do the right thing and step down NOW...Holy Crap now you want more frickin Taxes...DON"T YOU GET ENOUGH

More Sales taxes
More DMV Fees
Taxes on Labor
Taxes on my frickin DOGS.

Where does it end...Are you going to Tax AIR

I Cant wait to move out of this sinking ship of a State .
You are screwing us out of our last Dollar..please rename the state Califwelfare...You guys are complete Idiots...What you need to do is CUT COST BIGTIME and cut the damn amount of governement we have in welfare land


Better yet I can't wait to fire the rest of my employees and move to a state that will appreciate my Business and not TAX the SHIT out of me and my employees. Shove your tax increases UP YOUR ASS....

Signed
ONE PISSED OFF TAX PAYER

Devestment said...

1) Reward saving and financial responsibility.

2) Back the currency with a variety of manufacturing and mining based commodities to be acquired both domestically and abroad.

3) Promote domestic production of goods while discouraging imports.

4) Make issues of race, sexuality, and what people do with their own bodies outside the scope of government business.

5) Increase production, maintenance, and improvement of long range nuclear weapons.

Anonymous said...

As the President my main objective would be job creation by any means possible .

Also , I would go about the process of creating incentives for Corporations to bring back manufacturing and jobs to
Americans . This would also mean that imports would need to be taxed more .I would do anything I could to level out the playing field with trade with slave labor Countries . It's about time that slave labor Countries start giving more money to their own people and start creating more consumer demand locally . While this would increase the cost of products ,it would also create better longer lasting products, in theory ,and perhaps more uplifting of Third World Countries . America could produce cheap junk also if they wanted to .

No question that a new compromise would have to be made with Unions to make it fair and in keeping with true Corporation needs to make a profit . Perhaps retirement benefits should be structured in a manner that yearly entitlements are averaged for the course of the employment . In other words ,more money is put in the kitty during
high profit years and less money is put in the kitty during lower profit years . This way a Corporation is not forced into obligations that they will be unable to meet by a fixed entitlement contract . This would also create incentives for workers to be productive for the Company they work for . Or maybe some form of profit sharing on a yearly basis so entitlements do not exceed a Companies ability to pay. With Government Workers it would be more difficult to come up with a plan for retirement benefits . I feel that perhaps we might need to get to the point we do not allow collection of benefits until a person is over 65 .

Greater regulations have to come about regarding lenders ,especially unregulated lenders . Glass-Segal ,or a similar form of that law needs to be brought back .
They discovered after the Great
Stock Market Crash of the late 1920's how much conflict of interest there was with investment agencies also being the lender . Wall Street would lend people 95 percent to invest in stocks on margin and this would create a bubble based on leverage . Lenders need to be regulated and should not be combined with investment agencies . Investment agencies need to have their own unique kind of regulations .
The Politicians that allowed that long standing law to be voided
made a big mistake .Wall Street will fight tooth and nails at any attempt to bring back the prior regulations that served this country so well for 65 years .

Because property taxes are based on real estate values,real estate is a areas where you have to be far more careful about how much leverage is allowed .A no document loan should not be allowed unless a person puts 30 to 50 % down .There is a duty on the part of Lenders to underwrite loans ,just as there is a duty for insurance underwriters to underwrite risk . Even if a Bank is carrying the loan risk on their own books ,they have a duty to protect the deposits of the Nation and make reasonable loans .

That being said ,there could be times that the Government would insure or provide a loan program for a public good ,but other than those times Lenders have a duty to underwrite loans .

Lenders should never be allowed to underwrite loan risk based on future value ,or a concept that real estate always goes up . A appraisal is based on the value of that day ,and underwriting should be based on ability to pay as of that day of the loan request.
Fraud always has to be considered in loan risk and this in the past was one of the major reasons for underwriting a loan .

Also ,if the Politicians want to force lenders to make loans that they normally would not make under reasonable risk models ,than the government should require insurance on those sort of government mandated loans ,either at the expense of the borrowers or the government .

I would bring about a lot of job creation by Government funded projects to help get us out of this Depression .

I would encourage by any means any development in furthering all forms of energy ,which would also create local jobs .

I would give a tax credit for a few years to encourage borrowers to buy foreclosures . Maybe a incentive of a 5 years at a lower fixed interest rate of 3% that would than go to 5% and that would remain for the remaining life of the loan (The borrower would have to qualify at the 5%).I would only keep this program for 2 years .

Bringing people to Justice who were Parties to the housing fraud would also be a priority .

Adjustable toxic loans should at least be re-written to a fixed rate to help stop foreclosures . While this would not be law ,the lenders would be encouraged to do it by the Government stating that they will not directly bail out a bad loan that no-doubt was in a lot of cases fraudulent . It would be better for the government to offer a incentive for qualified buyers to buy foreclosures and the government to give the incentive to a new buyer . This would cause the banks to get down to being more willing to re-write loans in their best interest ,as well as the potential defaulting
borrowers .

The moral hazard in reducing principal for defaulting borrowers
by some government hand-out would just create a massive walk-away by good borrowers . Good Borrowers that have bad loans should be offered new loans to prevent future foreclosures . Just because a borrower is a good pay doesn't mean they should be stuck with a toxic high rate loan ,especially since the lenders agent most likely lied and said they would be able to refinance . The bank will still make a profit by giving a 5% or6% fixed rate to a good pay borrower who intended on being a long term homeowner .
Short sales should only be approved if the borrower qualifies for a hardship case . Lying on your loan application does not qualify for hardship case . Perhaps losing your job or medical emergency or being without any savings or assets left after trying to meet your obligations would qualify .

I would keep the capital gains rate the same .For 5 years I would allow savings earnings to be tax exempt .

I would require that a party would have to hold a primary residence for at least 10 years before they would qualify for the real estate
up to 500 k exclusion on capital gains . If you only hold a property for 1 year you only get 1 tenth of the exclusion .

I would take away some of the more abused tax write offs . I would increase the taxes on people earning over 300 k a year ( but not forever )

I would move toward a quicker ending to the War .

I have already gone over 5 things that I would do ,but there are many more . No question that Social Security has to be addressed . I think some of the welfare programs would need to be trimmed . I would increase unemployment insurance time, to respond to the job loss during a recession . I would also provide Government
trailers for the down and out because of the depression ,as well as provide food and maybe some programs for job retraining .

Don't know what I would do about the Health care issue ,but this is another area where there has to be a better way .

I might even go into a deal were
the Government rents out foreclosures properties .

For the government to encourage stock market investment is wrong .Anytime the government encourages investment in a certain area they
create a potential for a bubble or incorrect values . The Stock Market is not suppose to be anything but a sideline investment
that is based on the true value of the stocks or Company potential . Real Estate is a little different in that property taxes are tied to it and people need shelter .401K's have encouraged more investment in the stock market . This is another area that deserves more attention as to what would be more reasonable to not produce stock market artificial bubbles . We all know what has happened to many people in the last month who lost
stock market value of 401k's . I guess retirement funds need to be either insured or only be allowed to be placed in low-risk investments ,or the retiree needs to sign a disclaimer that they know that the retirement funds are placed in a possible loss fund .

Anonymous said...

1) Appoint a special prosecutor to go after the fraudsters.
2) Cut everyone's taxes by 10 percent.
3) Eliminate minimum withdrawal requirements on IRAs and taxes on Social Security benefits.
4) Provide tax credits (not loans like the 7000K thing) for investment in real estate to people with good credit.
5) Create and sell special bonds with higher interest rates and allow people to take a certain amount out of their 401Ks tax free to invest in them.

Anonymous said...

It is just mind-blowing how much people have lost in the stock market
lately and how much they have lost on real estate lately .

I think the people that have taken the biggest hit have been the Baby Boomers . No doubt this will make it even more impossible for Baby Boomers to retire .

Some of the losers have been people who were not flippers or
big time gamblers ,but they were people who thought they were being prudent in their investments .

I don't think that you can say that people that put in small contributions for years deserve
that kind of loss . They were convinced that it was a good retirement plan . The public is so brain-washed and they really have been mislead in a lot of cases .

In the future I believe that people will take more charge of their investments and be more defensive about them .

Some of the people that came out of the Great Depression never trusted the Banks or Wall Street again ,in spite of FDIC and other insurance protections .

Part of the recovery is that trust in the system must be restored .
Many things have to take place before that can take place . How many times can a person take being clobbered until they won't play
anymore and they will take their
marbles and not invest in the stock market any more .

I think the public is wising up to the bail-outs so far being for everybody but Main Street.

So, maybe insurance will have to be issued in order to get people to invest and regain faith in the system . They had to create FDIC in order to get people to invest in Banks again after the Bank failures of the 1930's.

Anonymous said...

1) Ignore all the promises you made to get you into office.
2) Hire the same jack*ss's
as the administration before last.
3) Pretend everything is getting better and have plenty of PR
4) Hide from the constituents while you party you *ss off on their dime.
5) Pass the torch to the other party, rinse, repeat.

Anonymous said...

1) Infrastructure - Invest in alternative energy and make a move to relocalize cities by investing in things like light rail systems.
2) Health Care - take it out of employers hands and make it single payer.
3) The Wars - make plans to end both wars and at least go back to fighting proxy wars.
4) Economy - fully nationalize lots of stuff and reinvest the profits from the bottom up.
5) prosecute all the economic and war criminals.

Anonymous said...

Where does it end...Are you going to Tax AIR

Already part of Obama the Savior's plan:

Cap and Trade Carbon Credits

Anonymous said...

You can't fix the housing crash and stock market crash by spending. Listen to Ron Paul again. Unfortunately, that is EXACTLY what President Obama is going to do. We are headed toward hyperinflation anyway. The current dips are not spiraling deflation, it's disinflation. It is a short term aberration. We have a matter of months before the inflation begins in earnest. The spending you suggest will devalue the dollar further and quicker. China will stop buying our treasuries if the dollar keeps falling. Hell, the world will stop buying treasuries. The Euro will probably split and the Arabs will back the Dinar with gold.

As Ron Paul said only a few weeks ago. To paraphrase: "I can't agree with Socialism. Government spending will not solve our economic problems, because we are in a dollar-crisis. Government meddling in the free markets is what got us into this mess. We have to let the prices of assets drop. Let unsound entities fail. It will be a painful couple of years, but we will avoid a decade or two of severe depression."

blogger said...

Oh, one more thing

Allow businesses to expense all capital investments immediately in 2009 and 2010.

One word:

Whoosh.

Anonymous said...

1) Read and Understand the Constitution. All of it. Most of the trauma we are dealing with as a nation is caused by the Fed screwing around in areas where they have no mandate.

2) through 5), see 1), above.

Anonymous said...

1) Create a United States Note to replace the FRN in preparation for a United States Certificate that is backed by metals.

2) Direct the DOJ to investigate and prosecute any public official that violates their oath or affirmation to uphold and defend the constitution of these united States. This would have the effect of undoing the War on Terror, The Patriot Act, The Department of Homeland Security, taxes on labor and wages and a bunch of other unconstitutional government activity.

3) Make artifical persons servants of natural persons again. This would force all corporate charts to be rewritten, so that their first goal is to promote the general welfare.

4) Reinstate the sovereignty of each american.

5) Make patents and copy writes nonnegotiable and only assign intellectual property to the natural persons that created them. The requirements for patents needs to be restricted, so that business processes cannot be patented and only truly novel inventions can receive patent protection.

Anonymous said...

We cannot solve what went wrong unless we address the "Excess Liquidity" issue that took place during the Bubble of the last 7 years .

Globalism is a great concept as long as it doesn't mess up the amount of
funds that are distributed that could create bubbles or faulty values .

With the whole World providing funds for Wall Street and lending investment and the Stock Market,while being unregulated in a lot of cases ,you had to much funds coming in that were placed in investments that were not rated the high risk that they were .

The Wall Street brains changed all the risk models of prudent lending ,supply and demand and you name it ,in order to make money on placing these funds .

The Powers that be did a miserable job of controlling the money supply and preventing false bubble because of excess funds . Wall Street made a fortune on this "Excess Liquidity " by incorrect ratings and pricing on risk .The World was looking for yields ,so Wall Street provided those yield without any regard for the Bubble and the fraudulent market values they were creating .

There are many Countries that like to invest in America because the opportunities are more limited in their own stock markets . We all know about the yen-carry trade .

A Country cannot just take in unlimited funds from other Countries while not considering the effect of those excess funds,especially if it produces to much cheap credit or faulty investments or bubbles .

During the Boom ,the Excess Liquidity ended up producing bubbles in real estate ,the stock market ,consumer products ,and you name it . The MBS structure with all the "Trenches " of risk ,did not eliminate the risk . In fact these investment vehicles were poorly constructed as in that the "Trenches " were in conflict of interest with each other when it came to defaults .

As the Boom progressed ,Wall Street/Lenders came up with more and more creative loan products just so they had a placement for these excess funds .Anything to keep the party going in mis-pricing risk by a compromise in borrowers true qualifying requirements . By all rights in 2003 the real estate industry had reach the max in peoples ability to qualify . Rather than the markets contracting at that time ,Wall Street/Lenders proceeded with any means to qualify the unqualified with a serious breach in underwriting loans.Fraud in lending was allowed to keep the party going . Money was given to anyone for anything ,regardless of risk or qualifying .

No question that new regulations have to come about to prevent Wall Street/Lenders from mis-pricing risk or any breach of underwriting standards . We cannot allow Wall Street to just flood the market with funds ,in a Ponzi-scheme manner ,that would create a fake value Bubble .

Real estate has always been limited by buyers ability to qualify or afford a price . This fact curtails real estate values from exceeding the price of affordability ,(because people usually need a loan to buy real estate ).This is a good thing because we want shelter to be in keeping with peoples wage ability to pay . This create a natural supply and demand limit on how high values can go in real estate . Under the boom circumstances this natural check and balance was exceeded by fraudulent and faulty lending and mis-pricing of risk ,just because Wall Street had a bunch of money to make commissions on . Greenspan could of curtailed the Frenzy by raising the rates . The bank regulators went along with the scam and the Politicians were bought off .
The unregulated Banks now need more regulation ,and the regulated Banks need more regulations .

What about World funds inflating the Stock Market Values . If the Stock Market is going to be a gambling Casino that is, not based on the true value of stock ,than Wall Street has to be deemed the gambling casino it is ,401k's need to be barred as to risky ,or more regulation will need to take place . Investors need to sign disclaimers that they are aware they are speculating .A third party objective entity need to be in charge of rating stock market fund risk .
Day traders that engage in the gambling casino can continue if they want ,but transparency in a market will curtail this sort of money making off false values and hype .

Wall Street created a false market in the late 1920's and it did it between 2000-2008. Florida created a false market in the early 1920's and they crashed by 1926 .

Any regulation that creates requirements that prevent destructive Bubbles ,with at least requirements that the speculator has knowledge of their risk is needed at this point .

Anonymous said...

Stock Traders and Real Estate agents
and Lenders should be barred by law from stating a future value of a investment . Borrowers should sign disclaimers that they are aware that they might not be able to refinance in the future . How many people would not of gone on toxic adjustable loans had they known that they could not get out of these loans because of a drop of value in the market ?

The Lenders and Real Estate scum
falsely told people that they would be able to do things regarding financing in the future that was a lie .In this regard ,the loan and Real Estate industry promoted a
investment scam or a Ponzi-scheme . No doubt that industry encourage loan fraud ,just to get a commission . In the past, it was a Realtors duty to just show property that the borrower could afford .Realtors were under duty to not waste sellers time with
unqualified buyers that would tie up the property and financially compromise the seller . Time is of the essence in real estate and delays can cost money .In the past Realtors knew that lenders would disqualify unqualified buyers .

Just because the loan agent scum was committing fraud and were breaching their duty does not mean the Realtors get a pass just because they turned the transaction over to the scum mortgage agent thief and liar .

Apparently New Regulations need to be defined on sales people in a financial transaction (as if these rules were not already on the books and have been violated already).Currently it is standing law that agents are not allowed to knowingly engaged in what they know to be a fraudulent transaction .Will Justice prevail regarding the part of the scam that the real estate and loan agents played ,as well as the borrowers ? Will threatening appraisers ever be addressed ?

The more people that are brought to Justice the better ,but I feel that only the blatant cases will be prosecuted .

Lets face it , Juries would be more hard on Professionals than the dumb greedy borrowers . Many borrowers were extremely fraudulent and greedy and have no excuse for lying to buy 5 properties they didn't qualify for . Borrowers and sellers that engaged in cash back fraud knowingly did so and should be prosecuted . No bail-outs for people who knowingly committed extreme loan fraud .

If the borrowers lied to the loan agents or the real estate agents about their ability to qualify,than that is a different sort of case . In most cases however ,how often was the real estate and loan agents in on the loan fraud and in fact encouraged it ? Any guesses ?

Anonymous said...

1) Keep Paulson in navigate for new world Order Bank
2) Merge the FBI and CIA into one entity.
3) Hire Black Panthers to run new Urban Street Kids Kamps! USKK
4) Let China have Ford GM and Crysler
5)Kill everybody over 72 and inpose 1 kid per unit rules.

Anonymous said...

Create a "holding country", much like corporations create shell holding companies.

This holding country will be southern California, AZ, and NM. We will transfer all our crap (broke companies, broke citizens, stupid people, spent fuel rods, etc) to this holding country. likewise, we will transfer anything of wealth back to the remaining 47 states.

We might be able to trade this holding country to Mexico for whatever oil they have left.

Anonymous said...

one pissed off tax payer -

I agree, I'm so pissed that Arnold wants to tax SERVICES. Is nothing sacred? Foreclosure pets already get the shaft, and now he wants to tax veterinary services, making it even harder for people to take care of their pets. He needs to cut cut cut the sacred cow gov jobs that shrink the economy. He plans to tax tax tax and make the economy worse. I'm glad he won't be president.

Anonymous said...

6) require executives and board members of publicly traded companies to hold a professional license. if they violate professional standards and lose their license, they can't be an exec or board member in a publicly traded company again unless/until they restore their license. it's painful to see non-professionals make so much while risking the economy because they have nothing personal to lose.

Anonymous said...

Forgive ALL debts and return to honest money - gold and silver coin. Since the entire debt structure was created out of thin air, what's the problem with this?? (except for the evil bankers) This simple, simple solution would save the world from the apocalypse that approaches. This solution would reveal the extent of our poverty and stop the inflation that is destroying us.

Buy gold online - quickly, safely and at low prices