I'm a loyal Obama supporter, but I'm also a free market realist. Obama says the right things about capitalism and markets, even for a progressive. But he's insuring a lot of the same people to make market bets whose bad bets got us in the hole to begin with.
Why are we having a top-down banking recovery? This seems like a plan designed by a republican! It *is* a plan deisgned by a republican, one Henry Paulson. It has two major problems. One is moral, rewarding the very ones who messed up, the other ethical, we're leaving the victins (us) essentially out in the cold. How about a new proposal: A bottom up banking rescue.
1) A standing offer to buy any house occupied by a family that owns it for 85% of its value, with a fair leaseback committment and option to repurchase after a set time. this buys out bad mortgages from the bottom, and keeps families in their homes.
2) Immediate extension of unemployment benefits.
3) Expansion of Medicare to cover all unemployed persons as part of their unemplyment benefits.
4) A medical hardship fund to cover the costs of uninsured major medical expenses. Far far better than letting people sink.
The most important part is, no direct aid to banks! Let the banks sip their aid through the straw of saved mortgages, and it they're still losing money, break up the bad units of them and let them fail.
Republicans talk a lot about creative destruction when it's jobs on the line, but are mysteriously quiet when it's time for bad firms to reap the economic mess they have sown.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment