Parrots!

I'm getting very tired of listening to the media "parrot" conservative economists' concerns about the size of the deficit.

Without "parroting" economists much smarter than myself, let me say that there is no avoiding considerable deficit spending in the short term without throwing this economy into a depression.

In the longer term, when UNEMPLOYMENT eases, we will need to dial back our government spending considerably or risk forcing draconian actions in monetary policy.

As for the money the government is currently spending, we need to make sure we're spending on programs that improve EMPLOYMENT. Progressive politicians should not be using the crisis as an excuse to fund "pet rocks"! (I don't consider Health Care a pet rock as it's wrapped up in the problem of unemployment... another post on that later).

Pet Rocks are bad because, if we don't pay attention, our debt will reach levels that will be very painful to service in the future. Yes, Yes, we can grow out of debt, but think about the demographics of our nation that differ from the patterns of the last 50 years.

We have a large "boomer" population that is thinking about downsizing and reducing spending as they move into retirement (or semi-retirement). How fast do you think the US economy can grow in the coming 25 years?

We need to solve the unemployment problem as our #1 priority. This is important folks!

Too Big To Fail

Finally, this topic is getting a little more attention in the press. The facts are clear. We basically have 4 major banks: Wells Fargo, Citi, BOA, and Chase. In another financial crisis, could any of these be allowed to fail without throwing the economy into the dark ages?

Is it me? Or, is this just nuts?

Shouldn't we work for a situation where we have many, many "athletic" banks that can service the market's needs? They could team up on specific large deals. We could regulate the number that could get involved an any one deal, and/or the number that could/should get involved in specific segments of the business and financial markets.

Whatever the outcome, a break up of these banks is required. Hell, we broke up "Ma Bell" for reasons less critical to the world economy .