Recession and the Economics of Wealth Redistribution

Last March in a BNN post, I remarked that--after the Con man from Crawford spoke at the New York Economic Club--contrary to his rosy assessment, we were heading into a major recession. Historians tell us the crash that precipitated the great depression was a consequence of failure to regulate the stock market. The experts tell us this time around, it's the housing bubble that sparked the crises. Why it happened is secondary to constructive commentary on how we can fix the problem. Historians, at least the ones they are listening to on Capitol Hill, claim FDR's New Deal was the tonic that got America moving again, Statistics from 1929 midway into WW-2 tell a different story.

I am second to none in my admiration of FDR and the New Deal, but the fact remains his attempt to stimulate a stagnate economy pretty much came too late. The New Deal served post-war America wonderfully, but it was the war that finally turned the economy around. The New Deal also became the foundation that prevented another depression from occurring--that is until Ronald Reagan began the task of dismantling the regulations and safe guards FDR put in place.

FDR's New Deal worked so well Ronald Reagan was long dead by the time the con man from Crawford was able to finish the job the great communicator started. To achieve the same level of recovery post war America achieved requires that we prepare for trillion-dollar deficits and taxing the rich until they scream bloody murder-- anything less and it's a matter of why bother.

Absent a world war, redistribution of the nation's wealth is the only sure solution to economic recovery, and selling it to the American people will not be as difficult as the filthy rich imagine.

Very few individuals, comparatively speaking, will enter the 80% tax bracket. Unless you make $250,000 dollars a year, your taxes will go down and you can look forward to finally getting affordable health care and the promise of a college education for your children.

Because trickle-down economics got us into the mess, it's only fair those who caused the problem should pay to fix it, and if you have a net wealth of a million dollars or more and take home 250K you belong on the first rung of a graduated tax plan that ends up with CEO's who earn ten million a year paying eight of it back in taxes.

Of course trillion-dollar deficits and raping the filthy rich is just the beginning. We must also tell our friends in China that it's time we begin establishing a more equitable trade relationship. Since we will have to continue borrowing billions from them, I suggest we blunt the bad news with our blessing in respect to their long held desire to bring Taiwan back into the Motherland's sphere of control. I concede the powers that be on Formosa will not be pleased, but the folks in Hong Kong seem to have adjusted.

China is after all only communist on paper. In fact if you consider recent rulings by the sith lords who sit on the supreme court in regard to property rights, the citizen's of China now enjoy more protection under law for private property than you or I in the good old U S of A.

After we take from the rich to benefit everyone else, the best course of action is to invest some of the money in infrastructure projects and education, Few grasp the fact that India has spent forty years establishing its own MIT. The era when the best of the brightest came to our shores is ending to remain competitive in the twenty first century. America must again start producing something besides fat children who consume the products of other cultures,

George Bush and friends have spent what was left of our inheritance and saddled us with a debt our great grandchildren will find staggering. Unless decisive action and reform occur in the next few years we are in danger of becoming the declining Roman empire of this millennium.