But the article serves more as a warning: that this isn't the time for the federales to "experiment." Of course, we like what she suggests as a way forward to recovery:
Luckily, we are entering the optimal time for reducing uncertainty: a new president's first hundred days, with a majority to back him on the Hill. Obama might start by rebuilding key institutions: creating a super-Securities and Exchange Commission, a tough regulator with clear plans for overseeing stocks as well as those instruments that had been monitored unpredictably because of vague status. He should also halve corporate tax rates, currently some of the world's highest, and reduce the capital gains rate to 5 percent. Rewriting the Fed law to clarify it will make avoiding an Alan Greenspan bubble easier. Defining his infrastructure program clearly would have the effect of putting up a sign: Open for Business.
Here's to a clear, consistent New Year.
1 comment:
Since our current crisis has little to do with the Great Depression I am doubtful that comparisons to FDR or Calvin Coolidge do little but perhaps make us feel better that things have been worse than they are now.
I am fearful that too much study of the past will calcify outdated patterns and mental models for approaching these issues. I am not comforted that Ben Bernake was a Great Depression scholar. The Great Depression has nothing to do with our current state of affairs.
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