gravenewworld said:
The era of unfettered capitalism is over. It is obvious now that the corporate world can not police themselves. We are now seeing the true social cost of what happens when you let capitalism run wild with no restrictions.
That is what Alan Greenspan admitted to Congress October 23, 2008. He was no longer the Federal Reserve Chairman at the time.
In the words of Henry David Thoreau; "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government"
This latest disaster of unregulated capitalism will likely be a death blow.
People are looking for and expecting big changes. Mitch McConnell was sounding almost bi-partisan yesterday. Even though he claimed the Republican Senate represents 50% of America, he knows better and is worried about that number shrinking in 2010. I think Obama will get bi-partisan support. He won 53% of the vote and has a very good approval rate. It is even difficult for Sean Hannity to spin that into "not a mandate".
Immediately what needs to happen is to keep people in their homes to stabilize housing prices. Put some teeth in the oversight board and get tough with the banks. Use the other $350 of the $700 billion to find a 3-way solution to as many of these foreclosures and distressed mortgages as you can. $700 billion is enough money to give 15 million homeowners, which is ~4 times the foreclosure rate, about $50,000 each. Not suggesting we do that just making the point that solving the mortgage problem from the bottom would be at least as effective a solution as giving it to bankers has been. A three way solution includes interest rate and principal reduction.
Put people to work immediately by fixing existing roads and bridges, not by building new ones unless it is replacement infrastructure.
For the longer term a strategy of rebuilding our cities for efficiency by increasing public transit and dedicated bicycle thruways. Install a new smart underground electric grid in the cities and encourage renewable home energy as well as other local generation sources nearby. Increase density and neighborhood planning so that services are blocks away not miles away. And make the streets safe by lowering the speed limits to 15mph in most neighborhoods. And most importantly, plant living roofs. Cover our rooftops with plants. It is fantastic insulation and membrane protection. I helped work on an assessment of a neighborhood's rooftops. The study concluded that 1/3 to 1/2 of the neighborhoods food could be grown on the roofs of existing buildings, although with some major retrofitting due to the seismic codes. Producing food locally reduces transportation costs. Reducing transportation costs is key to sustainability. And in the short term is essential.
Someday when Tesla's dream of free power from the air to power our personal transporters then transportation will not be such an issue. Until then I would like to encourage people not to drag around an 8000lb SUV everywhere they go.
With solar panels just now reaching $1.00 a watt retail, a big investment in manufacturing facilities to produce these panels will pay off in the long run.
http://www.nanosolar.com/" is producing 1 gigawatt a year of solar panels. If we built 1000 of these factories it would still take 1000 years to meet the worlds energy demand. So there is plenty of opportunity for mining companies to shift from oil and coal to finding and extracting the raw materials these factories will need.
Aggressive recycling. Everything has value. This concept has been lost to a generation. Those old enough to remember the "Great Depression" have not forgotten. Instead of demolishing we deconstruct, recycle, or abate. Less and biodegradable packaging. Bring your own bag and cup etc. Zero waste is the goal and it is possible.
The scope and scale of rebuilding the worlds infrastructure to be sustainable will provide a better economic stimulus than a world war ever could. We can rebuild the cities without blowing them up first.