Prepare for Change

I highly recommend Kevin Phillips' book Wealth and Democracy. He compares our current (well up to 2001) financial dive with similar falls in 17th Century Netherlands, 18th Century Spain, and 19th Century England. It's a useful historical review. It's also jam-packed with interesting historical tidbits about US economic history. Here's my favorite quote: "The peril of any utopianism, of course, is how it suspends rationality and pursues a dream. In the case of millennial American conservatism, the political dream, for all its responsiveness to the tangible self-interest of rich constituencies, has been the illusion of markets as potential parliaments rather than descendants of carnivals, as rational decision-makers rather than precarious litmuses of human nature." (p. 371)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/reagan-insider-gop-destroyed-us-economy-2010-08-10 David Stockman, Reagans' money man, says the GOP has already destroyed the US economy. Up next; class warfare. While everyone is looking for an economic "recovery," I'm afraid where we are now is where we'll be for quite some time.

The Military Industrial Complex has us by the balls. Even though the rest of the country is reeling from the recession, military spending keeps on going. We now spend more on defense than the rest of the WORLD does. Why are we so paranoid? Who is after us? We could easily cut our defense spending in half and perhaps save our teetering economy. We have no need to be spread all over the world like some old-time imperial power. We could close bases in other countries, cut back on mammoth projects designed to fight the nonexistent USSR, and start using soft power instead of destructive wars. http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/how-not-to-save-money/413647

Two books to get you started on the idea that groups of otherwise unconnected people can accomplish amazing things: Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, and J. Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds. As a quick example, the computer language Linux was essentially written by programmers who didn't even necessarily know each other, but contributed as much and as often as they desired to create a part of the whole. So "crowdsourcing" is becoming a cool idea. Have a problem? Post about it on an appropriate web site, and let the vast masses out there offer solutions. Often times, you'll get a pretty good result. This can go overboard though. As an example, when Allen Greenspan was head of the Federal Reserve, he deferred to "the Market" as being smarter than he was. He thought that there should be little regulation of the Market because the communal mindset was always smarter than any other input. Well, we know how that worked out. Another problem is tha...

http://www.visualeconomics.com/healthcare-costs-around-the-world_2010-03-01/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifoo/sets/72157623493792126/ Universal health care will solve most of the healthcare issues. Insurance companies are already raising prices over 30% annually, 30 million Americans are without coverage, and yet people still fight against health care reform?

http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/ A simple, intriguing idea. The banks get kid glove treatment from our government, so asking them to give a little back is not outrageous.