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NEW IDEAS ON RESTORING U. S. ECONOMY, for the Next Secretary of Commerce, William Blaine Richardson III
By Stephen Fox (about the author) Page 2 of 5 page(s)
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Paul Krugman, New York Times:
What the world needs right now is a rescue operation. The global credit system is in a state of paralysis, and a global slump is building momentum as I write this. Reform of the weaknesses that made this crisis possible is essential, but it can wait a little while. First, we need to deal with the clear and present danger. To do this, policymakers around the world need to do two things: get credit flowing again and prop up spending.
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Allyson, Investment Banker, San Francisco
Without a concentrated focus on the mortgage crisis as it pertains to homeowners, as one of the root causes of our credit market free fall... all other efforts to restore our financial markets remains stalled...This economy has proved that trickle down economics have failed and failed miserably. Richardson must implore, cajole, and order lending institutions to renegotiate existing home mortgage terms and allow borrowers to stay in their homes...The pace and marketing of this efforts must be stepped up...The second imperative is to deliver on instituting sweeping and consistent regulatory review over the handling of funds delivered to major financial institutions. Due to the reality that consumer confidence is currently hitting new lows, the intense media scrutiny on the bailout recipients has been mostly negative. The perception that the funds have been squandered or mis-directed is pervasive, de-moralizing and detrimental. Richardson needs to immediately upon appointment come out swinging and with a focus on consumer protectionist policies versus big business...
Wythe Holt, Professor of Law University of Virginia
One thing incoming Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson can do to help improve American business and the American economic situation in general is to support single-payer health care. The real difference between American automakers and those from other developed countries is that those foreign businesses are not financially responsible for autoworkers' health care costs in any way. Since even some autoworkers do not now have health care, among the 50-odd million Americans who are deathly afraid of getting sick because they have no coverage, if we had single payer health care in this nation, the automobile industry would have more good work from more healthy people. A second thing Richardson could do is to support the termination of all so-called free trade agreements. NAFTA has only hurt American workers and American business. All unions and most workers already know this, and refuse to support new and existing "free-trade" agreements. They only damage the economies of foreign workers and encourage them to find new jobs elsewhere, often in the US.
Paul Simons, Levittown Pennsylvania:
The next Commerce Secretary must strongly and repeatedly urge Americans to drive less, to continue to practice what we learned when gasoline cost $4.00 a gallon, if we want to maintain control of the cost of the stuff. He must educate us about the ways in which we can exert power over our economic situation, for example by saving, buying locally grown food, and paying bills on time to protect ourselves from usurious finance charges. He must work with both car builders and car buyers to get very reliable and very efficient cars built here and bought here.
In short, he must act in parallel with President Obama, as a teacher and guide, to bring clarity and understanding to a public that has been advertised and manipulated into ignorance and helplessness. There were a lot of bad loans, a lot of crooked mortgages that would have failed no matter what, but the months of extremely high gas prices pulled the rug out from under a huge number of them at the same time and here we are. David Brancaccio's PBS program profiled people who had to commute a good distance to & from work, costing them hundreds of dollars a week, leading to mortgage default. So teaching people the facts about conservation and energy alternatives is paramount. I read an opinion piece in the local paper discounting solar energy because it would take up too much land area. Only problem was, the guy that wrote it had absolutely wrong data. The new administration needs to get accurate kilowatt per acre figures into every citizen's head.
Danny R. Roman, author, Computer Technologist at the Battle Laboratories of the United States Army, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, father of two, spends his free time writing about current events; from an historical perspective with impeccable accuracy as the objective :
Quality Trumps Green
The Obama White House is hoping to create 5 million new "Green-Collar"- jobs over the next 10 years, and it will be the Department of Commerce that is on point to bring this vision to pass. Amongst a myriad of responsibilities, the DOC promotes and expands American businesses at home and abroad, advances intellectual property protection, expands worldwide access to American products, and is tasked with producing quality and preeminent economic data that is second to none. The DOC promotes business, which promotes freedom, which promotes security, which promotes prosperity. And prosperity is beholden to security, which is beholden to freedom, which is beholden to business, which is entirely beholden to Quality. After World War II, the American economy boomed because Americans and the rest of the world prized not only American ingenuity but also American quality. At the pinnacle of American engineered and built products, it was the automobile that captured the hearts and minds of the world and became a status symbol to tens of millions. And now, for 2009, American automobile manufacturing has lost its dominance and is teetering on the edge of the abyss because of this"-too many people in our generation have been burnt by the Big Three products, which have caused the loss of an irreplaceable loyal customer base. Quality products are their only hope of recapturing what has been lost. The Obama Administration's vision of a Green super-economy will go from Red to Black if the top priority is anything less than Quality of the absolute highest caliber; And this is where the Department of Commerce can either make it happen"-or break it without end.
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Daniel Bruno Sanz, Wall Street Analyst and CEO [www.WHytheDemocratswillwinin2008.com]:
The Department of Commerce: An Opportunity for Bill Richardson to Shine Once Again
According to its website, the Commerce Department's mission is "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce" of the United States. This has evolved, as a result of legislative and administrative additions, to encompass broadly the responsibility to foster, serve, and promote the Nation's economic development and technological advancement. The Department fulfills this mission by: a. Participating with other Government agencies in the creation of national policy, through the President's Cabinet and its subdivisions. b. Promoting and assisting international trade. c. Strengthening the international economic position of the United States. d. Promoting progressive domestic business policies and growth. e. Improving comprehension and uses of the physical environment and its oceanic life. f. Ensuring effective use and growth of the Nation's scientific and technical resources. g. Acquiring, analyzing, and disseminating information regarding the Nation and the economy to help achieve increased social and economic benefit. h. Assisting states, communities, and individuals with economic progress.
Richardson is undoubtedly well qualified to run this organization and charter a new course for American business at home and abroad. He has served as President Clinton's Energy Secretary and UN ambassador. He has negotiated deftly with the counter- parties to some of America's most volatile relationships in Iraq, North Korea and Cuba. Richardson has the down-to-earth demeanor I came to admire when I lived in New Mexico, is persuasive and knows how to disagree without being disagreeable. These attributes are in perfect sync with Obama's policy of talking to our adversaries. In March of this year, Richardson presciently ended his presidential bid and endorsed Barack Obama for president, while Hillary Clinton raged on. Her pending appointment as Obama's Secretary of State may have more to do with the expediency of rapprochement within the Democratic Party after a divisive and hurtful campaign than anything else.
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This writer believes that Bill Richardson would have made a better Secretary of State than Hillary Clinton. Some Richardson supporters feel let down that he wasn't chosen for State and would like him to remain as governor of New Mexico. They may not be aware that his term ends in 2010 and term limits prevent him from running again, limiting his options. Richardson, like Obama, will inherit a mess when he assumes his new post. Bush acolyte Carlos Gutierrez has faithfully pursued policies and free trade agreements supported by the outgoing discredited administration. Gross Domestic Product fell by 0.5% on an annualized basis in the third quarter of this year and will probably fall further this quarter. The economy is in a recession and panic grips financial markets.
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