I dare to dream

[BDBoop]

I'd like to ask for serious answers only. I'd appreciate the consideration.

What could Obama do right now and in the next six months to turn the economy around.

 

[Renae]

I'd like to ask for serious answers only. I'd appreciate the consideration.

What could Obama do right now and in the next six months to turn the economy around.

Nothing. He's of the mentally flawed position that government, through spending, taxing, regulations and laws can improve an economy.

Now, if he were to take a pro-business, anti-government position, he could turn the economy around, however, he cannot do this. Not because he is stopped by some force, but rather he is INCAPABLE of thinking in that direction.

 

[Geo Patric]

Nothing.

that is mostly true. Presidents do not create jobs. They can enact policies that improve economies. and he has done so. the general consensus among those who are in the best position to know is that the recession ended well over a year ago.

He's of the mentally flawed position that government, through spending, taxing, regulations and laws can improve an economy.

this, of course, is mere partisan ugliness. m. Obama is at least 10 times as intellectually capable as ... well... as most folks and has a staff of very smart and capable people too. that he does not think (and i use the term loosely) the same as you.... does not make you smarter.

Now, if he were to take a pro-business, anti-government position, he could turn the economy around, however, he cannot do this.

oh, yeah... as m. Bush did.... HE managed to keep us out a rec... wait... emmm... lemme look... oh, nevermind.. it was the 'pro-bidness' position of george that put us up the pole to begin with wannit?

in fact, m. Obama has been very pro-business... and when his irrational critics are not slamming him for being anti-bidness, they are slamming him for being too nice to bidness... givin' 'em money and everything.

Betty, the economy, as a thing in itself, is doing fine, thanks. Not everybody is benefiting. There may be any of a number of reasons - one is really simple - businesses are not hiring, employment is not bettering, no one is spending, so business is not hiring and no one is making money so they are not spending so businesses are not hir....

yeah... we have become a service economy. we are no longer a manufacturing economy. no one to hire you or me to make widgets, only folks who WOULD hire us to SELL widgets made elsewhere if there were anyone wanting to buy widgets... lots of folks would like to, not many can.

most folks are not suffering, Betty. but we have created a huge underclass. it is not going away in the near future. it may never go away.

geo.

 

[Helvidius]

Presidents can do a whole lot in terms of the economy. A better question would be what Ben Bernanke can do to turn the economy around in the next six months.

 

[BDBoop]

Presidents can do a whole lot in terms of the economy. A better question would be what Ben Bernanke can do to turn the economy around in the next six months.

Thank you. I'm going to do some reading.

 

[cpwill]

I'd like to ask for serious answers only. I'd appreciate the consideration.

What could Obama do right now and in the next six months to turn the economy around.

hmmm....

in six months? that's a short time line.

tax code simplification with rate reductions equaling credit and loophole loss. that squeezes hundreds of billions of dollars back into the productive sectors of the economy - while still avoiding effective rate increases which would dampen growth. make the changes permanent to reduce uncertainty.

pass a debt-ceiling increase that reforms the entitlements to make them sustainable - that keeps our bond rates from spiking.

get rid of agricultural subsidies that increase the price of food. start drilling everywhere in order to get futures traders off of an upward spiral and stop printing money in order to cease inflation of both.

take tax-and-trade off the table - the uncertainty is keeping people from investing.

a regulation freeze, combined with stripping out much of the federal registrar.

make waivers to Obamacare available to all who apply - same thing with the uncertainty, as many businesses still don't know how much it's going to cost them.

the trick is, the government can't create wealth, it can just make it easier for the market to do so. Government can destroy wealth, and so most of "what to do to turn the economy around" is really just "stop hurting it".

 

[BDBoop]

Thank you so much. Truly. I appreciate you taking the time to think that through and type it out without any shots or slams.

 

[cpwill]

we shout because we want to put these things into place, and we slam because we are frustrated when it doesn't happen :shrug: humanity

 

[BDBoop]

we shout because we want to put these things into place, and we slam because we are frustrated when it doesn't happen :shrug: humanity

Sometimes, other portions of humanity just aren't up for all the shouting and slamming. Having said that, this might be a day I actually shouldn't be here. Something has me a little thin-skinned, and I know not what.

 

[cpwill]

i warned you to give up dry-shaving.....

 

[BDBoop]

i warned you to give up dry-shaving.....

But you can call me Sasquatch.

 

[MKULTRABOY]

Theres all sorts of things he could do. Plenty of things that lots of politicians do just before elections to ratchet up the economy in the short term and damage it in the long term.

 

[Removable Mind]

There is a game played by Presidents, Congressional members, the FED, etc....

They don' ever mention the following when talking about tax increases or decreases.

The top 10 % don't usually pay taxes on ordinary income like the bulk of Americans. They earn their money on capital gains investments. They can manipulate the sale of those investments and influence profits and even losses. The vast majority can't do that.

CP mentioned closing loopholes. This is an area that needs to be considered.

 

[TheDemSocialist]

Tax the rich,
Nationalize Oil,
Invest in alternative energy,
Turn over the workplace to the workers

 

[Temporal]

Nothing. He's of the mentally flawed position that government, through spending, taxing, regulations and laws can improve an economy.

Now, if he were to take a pro-business, anti-government position, he could turn the economy around, however, he cannot do this. Not because he is stopped by some force, but rather he is INCAPABLE of thinking in that direction.

The GOP was headed down the same path at the end of Bush's term. It would be no different if a Republican President were in power. The same stakes were presenting themselves.

Ultimately Congress has little power over the economic infrastructure. We need to instead be looking at the privatized Federal Reserve and its practices, as well as those of Wall Street, which have lead to the current state of affairs.

If you keep relating to the economic problems on such a personality level - i.e. it's "THIS" individuals fault for everything - you will not be able to see the bigger picture.

 

[Ikari]

I'd like to ask for serious answers only. I'd appreciate the consideration.

What could Obama do right now and in the next six months to turn the economy around.

Cut subsidies to companies reaping our money, make a fair tax rate including bumping the capital gains tax up to the same level as income tax, and invest in work projects such as nation wide high speed rail and fiber internet. These aren't permanent, but would create jobs over the next several years which would allow the majority of people through this time; and we would end up with a nice infrastructure on the other side.

 

[BDBoop]

Cut subsidies to companies reaping our money, make a fair tax rate including bumping the capital gains tax up to the same level as income tax, and invest in work projects such as nation wide high speed rail and fiber internet. These aren't permanent, but would create jobs over the next several years which would allow the majority of people through this time; and we would end up with a nice infrastructure on the other side.

Excellent ideas.

 

[StillBallin75]

Excellent ideas.

Infrastructure spending is likely the one legitimate form of government spending that most people can agree on, and tbh our infrastructure right now is becoming increasingly outdated. I'm not sure about the need for high-speed rail though.

 

[BDBoop]

Infrastructure spending is likely the one legitimate form of government spending that most people can agree on, and tbh our infrastructure right now is becoming increasingly outdated. I'm not sure about the need for high-speed rail though.

We have the light rail here in Minnesota and JMNSHO it's an excellent alternative to busing or driving.

 

[lewstherin]

that is mostly true. Presidents do not create jobs. They can enact policies that improve economies. and he has done so. the general consensus among those who are in the best position to know is that the recession ended well over a year ago.



geo.

lol. no he hasn't. this is exactly the same kind of revisionist nonsense like we had with FDR and the myth that
he "got America out of the great depression", when in fact he EXTENDED the horrible economy 7 years longer
than it should have lasted, with his big gov spending policies.

 

[Cephus]

I'd like to ask for serious answers only. I'd appreciate the consideration.

What could Obama do right now and in the next six months to turn the economy around.

What could he do or what will he do? There are lots of things he could do, but since he's a liberal, he won't do any of them.

 

[BDBoop]

I'd like to ask for serious answers only. I'd appreciate the consideration.

What could Obama do right now and in the next six months to turn the economy around.

Thanks to all who gave thoughtful, sincere answers.

 

[lewstherin]

what he COULD do to help our economy is....instead of demonizing American business, big and small; he could place
tariffs on all goods being imported from asia. this way we could actually remain competitive, in regards to this whored out
global market.
but he won't do that, because he's nothing more than an internationalist stooge whom wants America as equally impoverished
as the rest of the world.

 

[cpwill]

There is a game played by Presidents, Congressional members, the FED, etc....

They don' ever mention the following when talking about tax increases or decreases.

The top 10 % don't usually pay taxes on ordinary income like the bulk of Americans. They earn their money on capital gains investments. They can manipulate the sale of those investments and influence profits and even losses. The vast majority can't do that.

CP mentioned closing loopholes. This is an area that needs to be considered.

um....

the top 10% pay the vast majority of income taxes - your point here simply isn't anywhere close to being true.

as of 2007The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 per*cent of the income but pay 37 percent of the income tax.[/url] The top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the tab. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent—those below the median income level—now earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes.


in fact, the US has the most progressive income tax structure in the industrialized world (I know, I was surprised too).


raising the capital gains tax simply provides a massive incentive not to invest in American markets - that means not to invest in American businesses, workers, start ups, etc. furthermore, capital is exceedingly elastic due to it's high fungibility - which is a fancy way of saying that it will very quickly leave a system where it is punished for sticking around, and very quickly flow into a system where it is rewarded. Alan Greenspan once said in Congressional Testimony that getting rid of the Corporate Tax Rate (dang, I should have thought of this point in my OP) would cause trillions of dollars to flow into the US economy in a matter of months.

 

[ReverendHellh0und]

I was going to say Resign, but no, that would not do at all with Biden in the wings....:ssst: