Actually.. No, that isn't true. That's just how corporate media news reporting begins topics like this.. with a blanket generalization.
Most have no clue how to fix the economy especially those sitting in the power positions able to make necessary changes...
Or they do but it goes against self-interest
And the masses only think of economy in terms of their own little lifespace.. Like the now-tired and well-used saying: "If a neighbor loses his job, its a recession; if you lose yours, its a Depression"
Ha Ha -- Hee Hee -- Ho Ho -- Hoo Hoo..
And of course there's a segment of the population that sincerely believe the economy is already fixed.. the super wealthy along with the Hopium addicts, rose colored glasses wearers and other naivete
So really, most do not have any thought or bother to consider what needs to be done to fix the US economy..
Luckily we do and we're happy to share..
Before we begin, understand that our considerations do not have the slightest chance of being enacted unless in the most dire of circumstances because our strategies actually attack and seek to fix the causes of the 2008 crash rather than talk abstract..
And you know a lot of people made a lot of $$ off Lehman Bros collapse, the bailouts, the quick-fix loans and ceding total control to the Fed in dealing with hiding or mitigating all the toxic debts..
Nonetheless, imagine a fantasy world much like the one we function in presently except our current President is a True leader with courage, fortitude and a sincere desire to fight for the everyday person as he or she takes on the Establishment Big Boys who truly control this country...
Close your eyes for a moment if need be to imagine such a person actually leading this nation....
OK.. Now here is what he or she would do to sincerely fix this economy
1) Propose and push job-creating legislation from Day 1 and do so Relentlessly..
What do we mean by relentless? We mean whatever legislation was created to give the most good-paying jobs to the greatest number of people would be fought for in Congress with health care taking a back seat in priority..
And if the opposition party sought to severely weaken or water down the proposed legislation or to have tabled in committee, that President would simply use Executive Order to get his/her job creation bill into law..
And this would be coordinated with a General Sherman-like scorched earth policy toward the opposition party where absolutely nothing got done or passed until the job creation bill was put into law..
In other words whatever strong-arm tactics, threats, bullying or intimidation that LBJ used against Congress to get his Civil Rights bill of 1964 passed, the current 'fantasy' President would employ x 10.
The Only focus particularly of the first 100 days in office would be to get jobs created and force private businesses to have to raise salary in order to keep the talent that would otherwise flee to government sector jobs.
2) Break up the banks into 'baby' banks
People who cover finance have written often about the need to reintroduce Glass Steagall, which was a bill put into law during the Great Depression (1930s) and rescinded by Clinton early in his first term (1990s) to help Wall Street expand their profits.
G/S was meant to keep standard everyday banking and the speculative risk-taking side separate so that if banks over-extended themselves and losing money, it would have no affect whatsoever on everyday people's checking and savings accounts.
We propose going a few steps further.. break up the banks
Happened to Standard Oil when Teddy Roosevelt fought to end monopolization.. Happened to Ma Bell back in the late 70s- early 80s..
So our fantasy President of the people would enact legislation or whatever means necessary to regionalize the banks.. For instance as hypothetical, Bank of America only does business in New England.. Chase does business only in the Mid Atlantic and parts of the 'Rust Belt', etc..
This means a person living in Maine can't get a loan from a bank that can't do business there. There will always be local banks and credit unions to compete on the best rates to avoid gouging and interest rate manipulation
But.. no longer would there be Any bank so powerful and 'important' to fit under the "too big to fail" slogan and they would live or die solely by their own merit and not taxpayers.
3) End the Federal Reserve (or at least greatly weaken it)
The Fed is pretty powerful and can do pretty much as it wants so for a President to truly go head to head in a meaningful way means possessing guts of indescribable proportions.
One power the President does have to combat the Fed is the power to open/close the stock market as he/she sees fit.
If the President wanted the market closed for 3 weeks or open to close daily at 2p, there's absolutely nothing anyone can do about it..
That means super wealthy investors can't have access to their cash and the Fed can't dump theirs into the rotting shark tank i.e. QE.
Now we freely admit this would panic some people especially since the finance sector uses everyday people as human shields to protect itself vs such radical concepts. i.e "We go down and Ya'll going down with us"
But we're looking long term as well as short.. The Federal Reserve is a private entity, not part of the Government set up by banks to protect banks and has grown to such an extent that it lends money and props up the entire global banking apparatus.
We've vented in the past long and hard on the Fed so for brevity sake, we'll skip doing so here, but understand through infinite QE and other Fed policies our currency is being debased (weakened) and wealth is moving continually upward in the hands of select few.
This is not true Capitalism.
There are things a genuinely strong, crusader President could have done especially with allies in Congress on the same page such as putting restrictions upon putting much stricter controls on the derivatives market and a national home mortgage restructuring plan where the government intercede to provide super-low interest rates in exchange for homeowner staying in said home for at minimum 10 years..
Taxes should also have been raised on the super-affluent to at least what was paid during JFK's administration-- 63% rate and to dramatically increase the stock dividend tax for those who made more than $100k annually from investments.
And a super courageous President would take the bull by the horns and completely alter the education system as its presently constructed.
No more 'No Child Left Behind' and all the standardized tests it brings with it.. Children once again get taught to think and comprehend and question... Not simply embrace repetition..
And while at it, a strong President would work hard figure how to control rising tuition costs (perhaps enact legislation where 60 credits only needed for degree vs presently 120) and other strategies to make schooling affordable without need to acquire so much debt...
So many things a rough n' tough President could have done to make life better and sincerely work to fix the economy. Even if not always successful or popular, you would have some kind of forward thinking progression for the nation..
Instead we have what we have.. Ineptness, Incompetence and Detachment
But judging by the pics below, the US isn't alone..
~ British PM David Cameron and Barack Obama having some fun taking a picture of themselves alongside Denmark's prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt during Mandela's funeral.. Ahh Kids being Kids..
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