He has only been in office for close to a month. Give the man a chance. I am a centrist and a fiscal conservative and have not been exactly thrilled with every decision made up to this point. Especially the government guarantying to cover all the toxic debt. I am hoping the whiz kids he brought in with him have a better view of the economic picture than I and know what they are doing. Never the less I am sure also when he began his campaign he never envisioned the economic mess he was to inherit from the Bush administration. I would loved to have seen what he could have accomplished without the extra burden of trying to stave off a total economic collapse. It is sad commentary on the nation when considering the first time we elect an African American President he has to preside over a national and world economy on the brink. I am heartened by the fact that we may have also have elected someone who is up to the challenge.

He has been methodical and persistent and seems confident he can use the opportunity to come out on the other side of this recession stronger than we were when we went in. I have made up my mind to be patient and not rush to judgment, at least give the man a full year to see what transpires. In my book you are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Anyone can stand back and throw stones. There are times in our nations story when we are faced with unprecedented challenges and teetering on the edge of destruction. One would have to have a bad case of ostrich syndrome to not understand that we stand on the precipice of either economic collapse or a brave new energy independent, green manufacturing economy.

No matter what kind of boat we all got here on or where we rode on the boat there is one thing for certain. We are all in the same boat now. One man can't do all the rowing!

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Obama is acting just like every other politician.  His stimulus is about buying favoritism instead of doing what is right.  The full dollar amount should have been spent to put people to work and to strengthen the country.  Wasting so much of it on tax breaks, and regular budget issues, is simply a political attempt to purchase votes.  By doing so he is saying things like that the 95% of the population that he claims is going to receive the tax breaks are so greedy and selfish that they demand an extra $15.00 per pay as the country takes on even more debt in these troublesome economic times.  Apparently Americans are not willing to continue to pay the same tax rate they currently do as the country's debt is increased to try to save the country because they are not the patriotic people who love their country as Americans claim to be.

Propping up banks or homeowners is not the answer either.  If a pile of money is put into the economy in employment, manufacturing and construction then the banks will be tripping over each other to get their share so credit will flow, and people who are employed can afford to make their mortgage payments and will support other businesses.  Most people will not get help to keep their homes even under his plan so it makes more sense to give all the people a better future opportunity, so they may in the future be able to buy another home under smarter terms.  And, small businesses first and foremost need people to support them, because being told they can pay a lesser tax rate on no income from the unemployed won't keep them in business.

Cleaner and locally produced energy and its continent wide distribution is THE PRIORITY need of the country.  If we don't have energy we won't have any other of the many luxuries we currently enjoy.  If you think economic, unemployment, education and health concerns are bad now then just try to imagine how bad things will get if there is a severe lack of electrical power available for the country.  Don't forget to add in the rioting due to the severe lack of employment, services, and food (especially in the cities).  Secure energy sources is more important than the large military force the US has for the security of the country.

The full dollar amount should have been spent on the refurbishing and rebuilding our country's infrastructure needs.  Power, water, transportation and communication infrastructure promotes and supports our society.

America currently has the perfect opportunity and the technologies to address these problems and Obama had the opportunity to start us on the right path but, like any other politician, his concern is simply Playing the "Game" or "Sport" (his own words, describing politics).

My first book "Life is a Puzzle" was recently published by PublishAmerica.com, under my pen name of JosephThePoet.

Almost had a few items of agreement with your last post Joe,

If the first 350 billion of tarp money had been put into comercial banks the credit log jam would have been fixed and half of what you alluded to would have been fixed. I see no benifit buying trillions of toxic debt with the taxpayers for two generations after ours having to pay for it.

Different administrations follow the advise of the two main branches of economics. The government intervention model, manipulation of the free market system. And the purist who think no government intervention is necessary, the market always know best and corrects itself over time. You will have different variations of the two with varying amounts of government intervention.

The question to be answered was the wisdom of becoming a comsumer nation based on credit while striving to do away with our manufacturing base. In the process becoming dependent upon other countries with a strong middle class building manufacturing base that are now our bankers, holding most of our debt and funding our economic recovery.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

"If the first 350 billion of tarp money had been put into comercial banks the credit log jam would have been fixed and half of what you alluded to would have been fixed."

Apparently Pompey Road doesn't live in the real world.  They got almost that full amount, with no strings attached, and it did nothing.

If the jobs were not shipped out of the country under pretended free trade policies or had been replaced by others of equal value to maintain the economy, then the abusive affects of the massive number of failing ARM loans the unregulated bankers wrote would have been diminished.  Because we also didn't have enough employed people able to keep buying properties the Banks greedy abuse was amplified and became a threat to all the economies of the whole world.  The banks abuse was only able to sustain itself during an increasing economy, and that means when more good jobs are being created so more people can purchase things.

My first book "Life is a Puzzle" was recently published by PublishAmerica.com, under my pen name of JosephThePoet.

How did this credit crisis happen?  What made it possible  for crooked investment "banks" to issue 800 trillion in bad paper denominated in US dollars?  Deregulation.

How to avoid a climate crisis, similar to the credit crisis, but with the added weather disaster effects?  Regulation.

Not "free" markets, that isn't any kind of solution.  

Simply regulate carbon emissions.  If it hurts lower and middle income families with higher energy prices, issue tax rebates.

And steer consumers towards carbon-free energy with direct subsidies and low interest loans for those who can afford them, and government supported programs who can't afford them.

Keep it simple.  Don't use unregulated "free" market scamming, use direct government subsidy and regulation.

Pay for energy cost tax rebates for consumers and subsidy programs by ending corporate welfare for agribizz, fossil and nuclear fueled power.

Ignore the fast talking unintelligable think tankers and economists.  If you can't figure out what they are saying, don't trust them.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

Joe, pay attention! Watch the little pea under the three shells. They were until a few months ago two types of banks. Commercial consumer lending & regular savings type banks and the new so called lending institutions on Wall Street that were banks in name only. Lehman Bros. failed first and the other 4 were propped up by the first round of TARP funds. Since then the other 4 have converted to or at least say they have converted to the regular style commercial banks we see on every main street.

The commercial banks did not receive the first 350 billion of the 700 billion TARP fund. They are just now getting around to talking about them. They made an attempt at solving the core problem housing last week and of course have done the economic recovery act but the commercial banks have  not been funded.
They raised the FDIC and guarantee some debt of commercial banks but I was talking about a direct funding of the commercial banks with the first 350 billion. If this had been done with the money earmarked for lending only the average Joe could now go down and get that auto loan.

Matter a fact unless you have been in a cave without cable or satellite the big controversy now is what happened to the first 350 billion TARP Funding. Deregulation took all transparency out of the markets and the SEC is about as much in the loop as you are so no one knows where the first 350 billion went. Well someone knows but not the sheep that got sheared or the taxpayer who fronted the 350 bil.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

You are just playing a shell game of delusion.  This type of bank or that type of loan or financial company that loans money to people, businesses and/or banks.

Dumping money into banking type businesses run by morally bankrupt idiots who destroyed people's lives and the viability of their institutions by their greedy selfish actions only supports the bankrupt idiots so they can continue to act like idiots and cause even more damage.

The banks should be allowed to fail if their leaders put them into that position by abusing people with their ARM loans and bad banking business practices.  They should be forced into bankruptcy and allow the FDIC to serve the function it was created for.  If the ARM garbage loans were revalued and the payments made better so mortgage owners could make their payments then the bank will continue to receive income and that could be the basis of acquiring the assets.  The government could claim first bankruptcy purchasing rights (so others don't just ransack them for the more profitable assets and leave the rest) then adjust the necessary asset values and people's payment terms under the adjusted mortgage rates then sell the bank assets back into the private sector.  So what if the investors who bought the bad ARM loan packages from the failed banking institutions don't get their greedy profits at the expense of others.

Employment drives a consumer driven economy, not shoveling massive amounts of borrowed tax money into financial institutions that have proven their leaders morals and banking practices to be bankrupt of value.

My first book "Life is a Puzzle" was recently published by PublishAmerica.com, under my pen name of JosephThePoet.

Allowing commercial banks to fail is not now or has ever been a solution to economic recovery.

One more time the Glass Steagall Act of 1933 seperated commercial banks for the lending investment type banks for a reason. The problems with the commercial banks only started again in 99 after the repeal of Glass Steagall and later the loosening of prudent rules pertaining to lending.

Regulations keeps morrally bankrupt idiots in check, your description not mine!

The seperation of commercial banks from the investment banks or markets was done because of the same market corruption that caused the 29 crash.

Funding the commercial banks with an earmarked transfusion of cash to the tune of the 350 billion they can't seem to account for now would have gone a long way toward freeing up the credit block. As I said there is no such thing as an investment bank now, In the last 6 months they have been relegated to the dust bin of history.

Regulatory reform needs to take place however in the international markets to get the trust back into the system and the fear out.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.