Any outside the box ideas to solve the financial crisis?

[csintexas]

It seems like one of those to good to be true deals.

[Ed Ziomek]

For the life and death issue of America's comeback....

Idea #2 (mentioned somewhere before)

Reduce stateside manufacturer's tax, from 35% to 18%

American manufacturer's are crippled by many factors:

High labor salary costs.

Enormous worker's comp and related costs

Prohibitive tax of 35%!

To RESTORE AMERICAN MANUFACTURING... meet the manufacturer's half way between the 10% overseas countries charge them for manufacturing their goods "over there", and the devastating 35% "over here". Go 18% or less, instead.

Put Americans back to work manufacturing in America, in clean steel mills, fabric mills, food industries, technology industries.

Recycle American money into the pockets of Americans by stopping the crippling 35% tax structures against manufacturers!

[csintexas]

All countries tax to provide services and infrastructure. Those taxes fall on businesses or the people who make those businesses but either way those taxes are there.

Tax is not the problem.

Spending and standard of living is the problem. America can't compete with countries that make do with much less. The average American consumes something like 5 times more electricity than the average Chinese. We spend tons of money on public infrastructure that other countries do not.

If we are going to compete on a global level there is only one way to do that.

Make do with less.

[Richard Haut]

isn't there a contradiction in all this ?

I have always believed that Americans as a people EXPECT to work.

sure there are the crooks on the edges of Wall St. or Washington, but the New Deal seemed to be based on having a nation full of people who actually wanted to work - the crooks and spongers were stopping them.

is it any different today ?

[csintexas]

No it isn't any different, Americans still expect to work. It is just that we don't produce much here anymore because all the jobs went to places where workers are paid less and which have lower pollution and other standards.

We are fairly competitive with Europe where corporate tax may be lower but payroll tax is higher because personal income tax tends to be high.

That is all the same to a corporation though because all that matters is the bottom line which is how much does it cost to manufacture and distribute an item.

[Ed Ziomek]

Rich, Chris, sensei... all...

Maduff, does anyone believe we have heard the full story?

There were 50 employees working for this guy, and his sons had to turn him in?

$50 bills... lost by one guy? No chance!

I hate to say it, but there will be blood as there usually is in these cases, and I think it is only the tip of the iceberg....

Rich... your quote..."Sure there are the crooks on the edges of Wall St. or Washington, but the New Deal seemed to be based on having a nation full of people who actually wanted to work - the crooks and spongers were stopping them.

Is it any different today ?"

You all know it too well, it is Entirely the same today, greed is rampant. Deception is even more rampant, and we have not heard the full story, may never hear the full story.

I know so many people who lost fortunes.

[csintexas]

The new deal was somewhat different than the situation today. The modern highway system was built, hydroelectric dams, etc.. Things that actually made America a modern industrialized country. Also the real recovery did not start until the war when we began the manufacturing boom.

Today we are only talking about repairing infrastructure which although it may need to be done won't make us more productive. Solar and wind energy is fine for reducing CO2 emissions but it doesn't do much for reducing demand on oil and it costs more.

So I see the majority of these 3million jobs Obama wants to create as just making work and not making us a more efficient nation. Washington seems to be in the same old mentality that we can spend our way to prosperity. (We just need to spend a bit more)

Still, I do agree it is better to pay people to fix infrastructure than to pay them to sit around and collect unemployment checks.

This is a period of decrease standard of living that was inevitable in a nation that has been maintaining a 60 billion dollar monthly deficit. No one can spend more than they earn indefinitely.

People around here are still building huge houses. They don't understand what the world will be like in twenty years and Washington still does not have the guts to tell them the whole truth.

I see part of Obama's plan is to upgrade the efficiency of a million homes. That at least will be a good thing.

[Ed Ziomek]

First of all, there are many good ideas here, and some terrible, horrifying ideas.

Sense..."Capitalize/convert bad individual and governmental debt into good debt."

No. Keep the government out of our checkbooks, keep their involvement at a minimum. They almost can't do anything right, can they? Let the losers lose. Let the failure fail, don't reward them.

Recyling American money to Americans
Chris... Tax is not the problem? What is the trade deficit today? In the trillions? Not only are we having foreigners build what we use to build, but all that money and all the foreign taxes go overseas, where it could be churning here. I say taxes and salaries and manufacturing should be right here, coming from my pocket to your pocket to the next guy's pocket, to our government's pockets too. I had a manufacurer tell me..."If the US government simply mandated on MONDAY a reduction in manufacturing tax to 10%, I would be buying up warehousing space on TUESDAY to manufacture right here. At the end of the day, I would draw even on cost, but gain about 3 months in the process for extra shelf time for my products, now coming from China."

And to your other points, Sure, absolutely, spend less, much, much less.

Causes of this debacle... going back 15 years?
I ask my clients, what singular, critical point in the last 20 years did it all turn bad?

Was it NAFTA? Was it the Iraq wars? Was it the Sub Prime loans being rated AAA triple deluxe assets?

A very interesting and repeated comment is..."When the government decided that it would be a good thing if everyone owned their own home".

I am over simplifying, yes, but the opinion are... regulations came down or went away, scrutiny came down, silly credit lending was rampant, abuses grew, and it snowballed with the sub prime meltdowns alongside the oil price explosion.

Oh, one huge element is that the messengers of doom were killed or displaced along the way. Virtually every wrong step was criticized by someone, publicly, to no effect.

One example, I believe is Goldman Sachs, who handed out billions of dollars of Christmas bonuses 12 months ago, including I believe 4 executives who received $67 million each, and that same company is of course fighting for its survival right now, as they all are!

[csintexas]

[ExperiencingArchitecture]

[Ed Ziomek]

Experience...."The government has created the debt and the banks worked hard as to get people into further debt. The current administration is working hard now to grow the debt and ruin the nation for eons to come, as now who will pay all this debt if we have no plan of action?"

Really? I guess my problem is your choice of words, and maybe we are coming from two different directions to describe one problem among many.

How about, people created their own debt!

How about, Banks and the finance system and hedge funds categorized those same debts as "Assets" on their balance sheets, even going so far as to sell those blocks of debt as if they were assets, and I believe this description is historical fact.

But end of the day, the government is NOT "working hard to grow the debt and ruin the nation for eons to come."

That sounds like conspiracy and intent to destroy our nation. That might be a little strong, don't you think?

I am all ears when you place blame for where we are today. I am also very interested in your explicit solutions.

[Richard Haut]

yes, the Governments in the US and UK have pushed their countries into debt.

yes, people have chosen to go further and further into both corporate and personal debt.

yes, there are those who seek the destruction of the existing system in order to impose a single world system.

yes, Madoff operated what was or became a self-destructing con - and yes, those who put their entire fortunes into any single scheme are fools.

yes, the news is ghastly with the media shrieking about "meltdown" and doom.

details of where we really are today ? who knows.

and that is the problem - if we all knew the reality of what was going on, then we could see what might or might not be done about it. But we do not know and those who should (or are obliged to) tell us, lack the honesty and courage to speak.

there will be no "New Deal" in Britain - there is no money.

there will be no "New Deal" in America until the crooks are removed. Take a look at the "reconstruction" in Iraq. The spam are coming home to roost.

take a look at the Neo-Cons and Bushites - take a good look. What are they ? You really want to know ? They are incompetent.

And Obama's gang ? He has got off to a terrible start with some of his appointments, but the world will give him a chance - one single, solitary chance. And if he fails ? The world's doors will slam loudly in your faces.

in order to be competitive, America needs to be credible.

[csintexas]

Well you know Obama has to lead from the center -so sorry no great American revolution will be forth coming. I don't think the times are tough enough at the moment to stimulate a 'when the going gets tough the tough get going mentality'

But there are still hopes of making some progress. Foreign policy will improve but it will take a few years to disentangle ourselves.

It will be interesting to see if Obama is any different when he actually gets in office.

[Richard Haut]

Chris

if Americans were pushed far enough to be in open revolt, it would be a disaster for you, me and everybody else.

Europeans (and most others) are and remain allies and friends of America. Bush and the gang abused that.

it is almost impossible to see what Obama is really about from outside America - what people want from America is commonsense. Nothing else.

[Ed Ziomek]

Rich, once again, too simple, too true.

The beauty of America is that each one of us can make a difference, I know it. But this time, I won't walk away from the grand stupidity and idiocy of our politicians, and so-called leaders.

Anyways...
Idea number three:

Simple plastic window coverings provides incredible insulation, $1 per window.

Windows are cold. I don't care what insulation rating they claim, windows are drafty, cold, and are massively heat inefficient in my experience.

A very famous home repair store sells a large roll ($13 per roll) of 4 mill painting tarp-plastic that I have taken, cut up with a pair of scissors, folded over at the bottom and top, and used four roofing nails to pound into the window frame. If done carefully (5 minutes per window), the insulation effect is almostinstantaneously noticeable. After about 1/2 hour, the room turned toasty warm.

Note: The 4 mil plastic tarp also sews like cotton, and 3M sells velcro fasteners, with stickon tape, but these are fairly expensive (just use 2 inch roofing nails, lightly tapped in, which can be pulled out in an emergency)

What happens is that glass transmits the cold, even on the best of windows. Even on brand new windows claiming good insultation, the grooves of the sliding window panels (left side and right) allow cold air to blow into the room, as if it is an open window (and it is!)

The simple idea is to seal all air leaks first (in the grooves, for example, with t-shirt strips stuffed in the holes, then use the plastic to keep the warm air of the room from chilling itself, and chilling itself as if the air conditioner is running full blast in the middle of winter. It is not important to completely isolate the window from the room air, only to prevent the recirculation of warm air against the cold window, especially on the lowest portion of the install (warm air rises at this critical point).

The warming effect is almost instant, and the price is probably less than $1 per window.

I can only guess at the money savings on their heating bill a homeowner would enjoy, probably in the hundreds of dollars per year, and multiply that by all the homes across the country...!

And for all of us to enjoy... "Working -" from Red Molly...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfwOBmpq8Uo