The governments in America and Europe have to together come up with a two trillion dollar fund. A big chunk of that money has to go to connect every human being to high speed internet access. It will pay for itself. Down the line the infrastructure thus built would gradually be sold off to the private sector. Money thus received would pay for the expenses now. I foresee profits.
This has to be completed in one to two years.
The second step would be to lay down a new architecture for global finance. This is hard for Americans to do because that might involve bringing to an end the dollar's special place in the world.
There has to be a massive push for democracy. A universal spread of democracy could be brought about in a few swift years. Once that happens rule of law between nations can then be imagined. Once rule of law between nations has been established, America could bring down its defense spending from 600 billion dollars annually to a more manageable 100 billion dollars. America can not think of a better cost cutting plan.
How Did Economists Get It So Wrong? Paul Krugam, New York Times ....... in a 2008 paper titled “The State of Macro” (that is, macroeconomics, the study of big-picture issues like recessions), Olivier Blanchard of M.I.T., now the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, declared that “the state of macro is good.” The battles of yesteryear, he said, were over, and there had been a “broad convergence of vision.” ........ the “central problem of depression-prevention has been solved,” declared Robert Lucas of the University of Chicago in his 2003 presidential address to the American Economic Association ........ Last year, everything came apart. ........ the 1987 stock crash, in which the Dow plunged nearly 23 percent in a day for no clear reason ......... U.S. households have seen $13 trillion in wealth evaporate. More than six million jobs have been lost ........ even as the recession continued to deepen, conventional monetary policy had lost all traction. ....... flaws-and-frictions economics will move from the periphery of economic analysis to its center. ....... has brought the world economy to its knees. .......... “the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” ........ until now the impact of dysfunctional finance hasn’t been at the core even of Keynesian economics. ......... financial markets fall far short of perfection, that they are subject to extraordinary delusions and the madness of crowds ........ H. L. Mencken: “There is always an easy solution to every human problem — neat, plausible and wrong.”
70 years back the economic profession went up one notch, from micro to macro. Now is the time to go up another notch: from macro to globo. The churn we see is of a US and a global economy tumbling to the global winds. New, robust, global institutions are needed, old ones have to be reinvented.
Old Jobs: Gone Jobs
The Great Depression saw the loss of countless agricultural jobs that never came back. World War II had to create a new set of industrial jobs. The old industrial jobs now lost in America will likely never come back. The country will have to make new strides and create many, many post-industrial jobs.
A Misguided Stimulus?
I thought a big chunk of the stimulus was going to go to ensure universal broadband. Instead they went to old highways, the offline kind.
Another War?
Will a full-fledged war to ensure a total spread of democracy in the Arab world finally get America out of the flunk? Could that be a war that brings about Iran-like mass movements? Is that war essentially one of communications technology?
The purpose of stimulus September 4, 2009 the recession — again, as officially defined — is over. ...... But unemployment is still very high and rising A strange madness September 4, 2009 Something is going very wrong in the heads of a substantial number of Americans. My whereabouts September 4, 2009
Thomas L. Friedman: Our One-Party Democracy New York Times It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. ....... “Just because Obama is on a path to give America the Romney health plan with McCain-style financing, does not mean the Republicans will embrace it — if it seems politically more attractive to scream ‘socialist’ ” ....... no one needs the burden of health insurance shifted from business to government more than American business. No one needs immigration reform — so the world’s best brainpower can come here without restrictions — more than American business. No one needs a push for clean-tech — the world’s next great global manufacturing industry — more than American business. Yet the G.O.P. today resists national health care, immigration reform and wants to just drill, baby, drill.
Image via WikipediaThe Stimulus Bill Was Messed Up
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