If the decision were up to you, how would you put these four key areas of the U.S. economy back on track?
- Employment: A lot of job creation has been temporary, and when there are jobs popping up in certain markets, it seems as if they’re almost immediately canceled out by layoffs somewhere else. With some of the largest states in the country still fighting exorbitant unemployment rates and stimulus jobs (as well as census jobs) drying up, what will it take to fix the job market?
- Housing: Things are still dismal despite a bright spot here and there. New home sales have fallen off a cliff and prospective homeowners are afraid to buy with so much uncertainty surrounding the economy. What does the housing market need to get back on its feet and what steps should be taken to fix it?
- Credit: Banks aren’t lending, consumers are afraid of borrowing, the government is clamping down on credit regs, and independent, high-interest loan companies are in a position to bleed consumers dry. The overall effect is a credit market that’s still in complete disarray. How can small business owners secure the loans they need to grow? How can the credit market right itself so consumers and business owners feel secure borrowing?
- The stock market: It’s up, it’s down … it’s down. How can the market right itself and gain the consistency necessary to make investors feel secure about throwing their hats in the ring again?
What do you see as the major problems that are keeping the economy from a full recovery? What has the current administration done right? What has it done wrong? Should we stay the course? Or abandon these policies altogether?
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below (and pass along this link to friends and co-workers so they can share their thoughts as well).
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Tags: economy, Finance, Obama, Recession
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:35 pm
There is no quick fix for an economy with as much debt as we have. The amount is staggering and only getting worse given the penchant of the current administration to foist more entitlement programs upon us as well as nationalizing entire industries (housing, auto, health). Philosophy matters and a philosophy where the government’s purpose is to run everything from the top down is know as socialism. Throughout history socialist/statist governments fall because they destroy the population’s ability to produce. Think about it-where would you be most productive: 1) a place where you have your money taken from you and given to someone else the government deems more worthy or needy or 2) a place where you keep the fruits of your labors and it can’t be taken from you under penalty of law.
The choice is easy. For any country to flourish and prosper you must have individual rights and the rule of law. The current problems are the result of 40 years of socialist laws passed to “help” some group or special interest. A return to the basic tenets of the Constitution is the only way to reverse all of our problems. A free market approach will take care of housing, banking, and job creation. (No, we don’t have a free market right now, nor have we for quite some time. THAT’S what has caused a lot of the problems noted in the article. Economies are made of entertwined pieces. If you start causing problems in one part you affect other parts.)
One major problem is the mistaken belief in Keynesian monetary theory. Simply stated it says governments can control the economy by controlling the money supply. It also says you essentially can pay off debt with more debt. Both of the statements have been proven wrong over time, but Obama and his cronies are economically ignorant and rely on wishful thinking and the advice of fools.
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Reduce taxes. It’s simple math. Say someone earns $1.00 and has to spend 1/2 of that on normal living expenses. That leaves the 50 cents of “discretionary income,” which is money they can spend “at their discretion” on things they want but don’t really need. If the government takes any portion of that 50 cents in the form of taxes, they will have less money to spend. One thing the president and dems don’t seem to get is that taking more of our earned money away in taxes leaves us with less discretionary income — the income business people need to grow their business and the income consumers need to partake of the goods and services those businesses supply.
July 28th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Build ten new “latest generation” nuclear power plants per year for the next ten years or so. These new plants reprocess their own waste plus they can reprocess the waste from the old nuclear plants that we currently use. This eleminates the need for a Yucca Mountain storage facilty. Puts people to work building the plants. Puts people to work building the stuff that goes into the plants and provides electricity with a lower CO2 output. Puts people to work running the plants. Require that the majority of the equipment being used in the new plants be manufactured here in the USA.
Give manufacturers incentives to manufacture stuff here in the USA.