ON STIMULATING THE ECONOMY
By Kermit C. Moss
Mercy me, sakes alive, and carrot coffee! The billion $dollar$ question floating around out there, on everybody’s mind, is how to stimulate the economy, to return it to, at least, some state of normalcy! Our famous and much beloved depression era president, Franklyn Delano Roosevelt, in considering the matter, said “All we have to fear is fear itself”. I would add greed to that. It was human greed that gave us derivatives, sub-prime mortgages, hedge funds, bonuses based on the bottom line, and CEOs drawing salaries amounting to $25,000 per hour or more!
The answer seems to be quite simple. Outlaw all those troublesome practices mentioned above, and set deductible CEO salaries at amounts not to be higher than, say, 25 times that of the average pay of the non-salaried workers, and severely punish those who either break or try to break the law.
But what to do about fear? Just to see incompetence and dishonesty, along with greed, in government and/or the economy brings on fear; and when fear sets in at a high level, consumption slows down to a crawl, and the nation suffers a downturn such as we are witnessing now.
Government spending, on roads, bridges, new school buildings and such will help, to put food on the table, and provide shelter, but will it quell the fear? Or will it simply convince people that times are bad, or the government wouldn’t have to be doing this?
Great speakers going about the country explaining things to the people is the best bet. FDR was great at it! When he spoke people listened. Obama is good! When he speaks people listen, but he is just one man. Dale Bumpers, former governor and senator from Arkansas, is good at it. When he speaks, people listen!
It would be a smart move for Obama to put Dale Bumpers to work!
Kermit C. Moss
PO Box 1136
Monticello, AR 71657
PH 870-367-2486 – office
870-367-7034 - home
February 8th, 2009
