planet earth looks blue

Today was a big day for the billions floating around, waiting patiently to be poured into the American economy.  Congress allowed the remaining half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Fund to be released.  It will be used just as the first $350 billion was - to open up the credit market, the main pumping organ of the economy.  Apparently it didn’t work the first time, but the theory is still correct, so they’re trying it again.  Only this time the focus will be more on buying up troubled assets and helping people from falling down the slippery slope of foreclosure.  

Also the House Democrats brought out their proposal for a second relief fund.  This time, with $850 billion, the money would be pushed through various channels, with the motive of keeping money flowing in the areas where it has almost completely stopped. $275 billion would go towards tax cuts for businesses and individuals.  Huge chunks would go to medicaid, to education, to building infrastructure, and to the investment of renewable sources of energy, all the while creating work.  Obama’s most optimistic predictions are 3 to 4 millions jobs.  Economists are predicting a hike in unemployment to just under 9% sometime this year.  

As long as we can continue pumping money into the economy we can keep the whole body alive, but when there are no more pills left in the bottle, we’re on the way to clogged arteries, chest pains, and a massive heart attack.  To solve a problem as huge as this one, we need to find out what created it in the first place, and stop doing it.  I mean approaching the financial crisis from a more holistic angle - stop consuming so much junk, stop getting into the debt/stress cycle, start exercising all of our abilities as humans and as corporations, instead of popping a pill and hoping all out problems will disappear.  We as human beings are capable of so much, of innovating, of building, of solving problems.  But if we fail to acknowledge this, and go back to our old routines, what’s to stop the same crisis from happening again?  

2009-01-15 

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