Echo & Economics

The dog may just pull herself out of this. The liver function numbers were not encouraging yesterday (up again), but her behavior is returning to normal and that tells me she is feeling better, no matter what the numbers say.

I got an interesting email yesterday. Here's the gist of it:

Just looking at the $85 Billion bailout of AIG, there are maybe 200,000,000 adults (18 years and above) in the US? Divide that into $85,000,000,000 and each of us gets $425,000. We'll even pay taxes on it, say 35%? That leaves $276,250 per adult or $552,500 per couple. Everyone could pay off their mortgage and debts, solving the liquidity problem. Or start a business, fueling the economy again. Or kids could pay off their college loans or parents could pay cash for their kids' college education. Or we could pay our parents' health care bills and buy health insurance for ourselves, solving the health care "crisis." Then the government could break up AIG and sell off all the assets for whatever it could get. After all, by giving the money to us, they're getting $29.75 Billion back right away in taxes. Plus whatever they get for the AIG paper holdings and physical real estate.

Boy, was this ever preaching to the choir. I say, do the same for everyone else who wants or needs a bailout. Auto companies want $50 Billion? That's another $250,000 per adult, minus $87,500 going back to the government in taxes, per person. Sell off all their factories to whoever wants to pool their windfalls (the employees?) and run them more efficiently. Let the new people make cars. Or not. Sell off the real estate and equipment and let everyone buy Toyotas and Kias. They do anyway.

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac? Dissolve them too. Give everyone in America their slice, minus taxes, of what it will cost to bail them out, and now, EVERYONE can pay off their mortgage, whether they were qualified for it or not. No one gets thrown out of their house. All those empty houses can be bought by whomever wants to take the investment risk of owning them in the long term. For cash. All those hurricane-damaged or destroyed houses can be rebuilt and the Gulf cleaned up. Let the people decide if they want to spend their bonus on that, or build somewhere else. Why do we have to rebuild all those fabulous houses on stilts at the water's edge in Galveston? (Only to have them knocked down again next season, or next?)

My brother says since we're just going to print money to get ourselves out of this, why not just print more so he doesn't have to work. I agree. If we're going to do this, let's just go whole hog.

I remember my dad trying to explain inflation to me once. His example was the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1920s, and he used the memorable phrase, "it took a wheelbarrow-full of Deutche Marks to buy a loaf of bread." I fear that is the road we are on.

I hate them all in Washington, with the fire of a thousand suns.