Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

['02 H-D #677]

May influence how you vote in a few weeks:

YouTube - Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

[Oh My Hog]

Interesting. As an outside observer here are my thoughts...

People on both sides of the house buried their heads in the sand on this. There was well-meaning intention mixed with laissez faire regulation with a healthy amount of greed sprinkled throughout. There's plenty of blame to be shared on all sides.

So what now?

Suggestion 1: Stop the blame game and work together to fix the current mess and then work at developing mechanisms to prevent it from happening again. If no one learned anything from the Savings and Loans fiasco - perhaps they'll learn from this mess?

Suggestion 2: Why does the US allow lobbyists to ply their trade in Washington and in state capitals? It does a terrible disservice to American voters when elected officials care more for what lobbyists have to say than the people who voted them into office.
Almost $3 billion is spent on lobbying each year - I'm sure they wouldn't spend that if it wasn't worth their efforts.

Suggestion 4: Eliminate corporate donations to political parties and candidates. Enact a law that states what the limit on campaign spending is. This pool of funds would be shared by the political parties based on their share of the popular vote. The parties choose how they spend those funds but nothing more. Money not spent would be returned to prevent stockpiling. This reduces the opportunities for influence peddling and returns politicians attention to voters NOT corporations, fundraisers, donators, lobbyists etc.

Suggestion 5: An election campaign that lasts almost two years is beyond belief. Even 9 months is too long. By the end of the process no one can stand any of the candidates still running.

In Canada our federal election was called AFTER the US party conventions were over and we will be voting on October 14th - still a month before the US votes. By the end of the campaign I can't stand any of our candidates either - I can't imagine going through the same process and political grand standing for an additional year and a half.

The US is in a mess financially as well as politically - perhaps this is the time to try and fix things.

Just some thoughts from your brother in the great white north.

[Tazz]

Hope this works but here are the PDF files to the bill.
Tazz

[musturbo]

I couldn't agree more with our friend from the great white north.(oh my hog) Not sure if the video quite tells the whole story. Funny how this emerges just before election time.