Assessing Obama and Other Thoughts
From the first time I heard Obama at the 2004 Democratic convention, I felt that his speeches have lacked a certain substance, a certain gritty edge, a certain rhetorical gesture, that I would have liked to hear. There was a blandness that caused my eyes to glaze over. A real sociopath would have spoken a lot better.
That hasn’t changed.
It probably has something to do with a lack of originality and a failure to leaven his advisory loaf with some truly creative and radical yeast. In the field of economics--a field so corrupted with the largesse of plutocrats, corporations, and wealthy right-wing cranks--the absence of a few brave, if not foolhardy, souls to question the given wisdom can make it difficult for a policy maker to envision practical and necessary—but unorthodox—solutions.
Given the economic advisors that Obama has gathered around him, I suspect that he is overawed by Ivy League intellectualism, even though he ought to be able to see through it, having spent three years at Harvard Law School. He is a very bright and decent but conventional thinker, however, and unless he is violently pushed in a different direction by the unfolding of events, he will follow the conventional wisdom. It is entirely possible that, like Roosevelt, he will ultimately find himself being pushed. Let us hope that we will have not already sunk too far into the abyss by then.
I have been thinking about Bernard Lietaer quite a bit lately. I've also been thinking about banking (who hasn’t?), and have concluded that by increasing banking reserve requirements to 100% and nationalizing the Federal Reserve System, which would prevent banks from creating money, we would solve 50% of our Wall Street banking problems. If we severely restricted margin purchases, options, and derivatives, and raised the top marginal income tax rate back to 90%, we would solve another 40%. Increasing the Federal Estate Tax and eliminating the step-up basis would take care of another 5%. Imposing a Tobin Tax on all monetary transfers would also be a good measure, as well as a 10-year holding period for an investment to be taxed as a capital gain and an end to the investment tax credit. That would take us well over 100%. ;-)
Alternative or complementary currencies, recommended by Lietaer, could be a huge benefit in many instances. I like the idea of eldercare credits. Also, a community mutual credit system could strengthen local connections between people and local businesses. It could also help the community survive bad times when people have less official cash. Alternative or complementary currencies have profound political implications, however, as they circumvent the government's monopoly (currently delegated to the banking system) on creating money and levying taxes. They will therefore provoke opposition from the banks and the government. Pity. We could use the resilience they provide for our fiat currency system.
That hasn’t changed.
It probably has something to do with a lack of originality and a failure to leaven his advisory loaf with some truly creative and radical yeast. In the field of economics--a field so corrupted with the largesse of plutocrats, corporations, and wealthy right-wing cranks--the absence of a few brave, if not foolhardy, souls to question the given wisdom can make it difficult for a policy maker to envision practical and necessary—but unorthodox—solutions.
Given the economic advisors that Obama has gathered around him, I suspect that he is overawed by Ivy League intellectualism, even though he ought to be able to see through it, having spent three years at Harvard Law School. He is a very bright and decent but conventional thinker, however, and unless he is violently pushed in a different direction by the unfolding of events, he will follow the conventional wisdom. It is entirely possible that, like Roosevelt, he will ultimately find himself being pushed. Let us hope that we will have not already sunk too far into the abyss by then.
I have been thinking about Bernard Lietaer quite a bit lately. I've also been thinking about banking (who hasn’t?), and have concluded that by increasing banking reserve requirements to 100% and nationalizing the Federal Reserve System, which would prevent banks from creating money, we would solve 50% of our Wall Street banking problems. If we severely restricted margin purchases, options, and derivatives, and raised the top marginal income tax rate back to 90%, we would solve another 40%. Increasing the Federal Estate Tax and eliminating the step-up basis would take care of another 5%. Imposing a Tobin Tax on all monetary transfers would also be a good measure, as well as a 10-year holding period for an investment to be taxed as a capital gain and an end to the investment tax credit. That would take us well over 100%. ;-)
Alternative or complementary currencies, recommended by Lietaer, could be a huge benefit in many instances. I like the idea of eldercare credits. Also, a community mutual credit system could strengthen local connections between people and local businesses. It could also help the community survive bad times when people have less official cash. Alternative or complementary currencies have profound political implications, however, as they circumvent the government's monopoly (currently delegated to the banking system) on creating money and levying taxes. They will therefore provoke opposition from the banks and the government. Pity. We could use the resilience they provide for our fiat currency system.
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