Mood:
brightTopic: "Frodo's Solutions" (6)
It is very, very difficult to keep a "stiff upper lip," when you keep getting your butt kicked was Frodo's message to his fellow Hobbits. "From Mordor to Gondor," he said, "there is nothing but bad news, and," he added, "it's too hot to be outside for very long. Then, even if you are able to tarry a moment, the wet Spring has fostered a generation of tiger mosquitos that are both vicious and persistent. They remind me of Republicants from Texas."
On top of all that, the gallant Braves just got swept by the scandalous White Stockings from Chicago.
Frodo has been thinking a lot about the economy, as if he were the only one. In his business dealings, the Hobbit is often asked if things are getting better. His standard rersponse has been that "Today is better than yesterday. Yesterday was better than last week. Last week was sure as Hell better than a year-and-a-half-ago." This generally draws a snicker or two, and either a nod in agreement or a wish that the message would receive quick attention at the ear of the Big Guy. Truth be told, this is, indeed, what Frodo believes.
However, Frodo recognizes the truthiness in the words of the opposition, and is therefore using that criticism as the base for his submission to higher powers on how to defend against a recession which resembles a large ice cream cone (a double dip, if Frodo's attempt at humor is too far afield). Given it is that 48% of the population of Middle Earth pays any taxes at all. Our increasingly accumulating debt reflects the fact that wealthy real estate developers, for example, are able to use a complex tax code in order to legitimately avoid their fair share of our national need. It is also true that fewer and fewer on the low-to-medium income levels contribute nothing, except their charming presence, to the investment that our nation needs in order to avoid that which has befallen less viable nations all over Middle Earth.
At the crux of our problem is the bank. The bank has found that the loans they made to real estate developers no longer reflect the value of the collateral. The $10 Million the bank loaned to the real estate developer to build a shopping center assumed that the real estate developer would be able to lease all of the space to grocery stores, and other convenient retail businesses. Since consumer spending is down because of job losses and so on, many of those businesses closed, and they have not been replaced, despite the best efforts of the real estate developer. This has meant that the real estate developer has been unable to repay his loan to the bank. The bank has then been left with the choice of calling the loan, and trying to seil the loan (at a big discount to those big bad guys from Wharton on the Street named Wall), or to re-negotiate the deal with the real estate developer. The result being that the bank loses money, and either fails, as have more than 38 in Georgia alone during the past year, or it simply licks its wounds and stops lending money until market condidtions improve.
The snowball does not stop easily.
Every body has a simple answer to the problems at hand. Unfortunately, nobody agrees with anyone else's solutions. Raising taxes. Eliminating the Income Tax. Selling more Government Bonds. "Drill, Baby, Drill," and other homilies, are the suggestions of those who enjoy hearing the sound of their own voice among the cacophony of talking heads and scarecrows accompanying Dorothy back to Kansas. That, dear reader, is why Frodo has drawn his own plan for your consideration and amusement.
To appease those who believe in swift action by the Government, Frodo supposes that we should immediately institute a complete and total freeze on bank lending to support the construction of any and all shopping centers, apartment buildings, office towers, or condominiums. Do we really need another shopping center? Anywhere? So why are we complaining about being unable to get a loan to build another something we don't need?
To appease the economists, Frodo suggests that incentives be established for the construction and development of any "green energy" project which produces and stores its own facility of non-fossilized fuel. The "energy developer" (who was probably once a "real estate developer") will have a marketable product which he/she could sell to anyone who had an interest (say, like a county who can light all of their schools with energy gathered from windmills, the construction of which had been financed by the bank). He might also make money; taxable money.
Who says that snowballs cannot run uphill?
When we get our draggy asses out of these doldrums, it will be because of thoughts that look forward, like Frodo has tried to do.
Ring, ring, ring.
"Hello?"
"THE Steven Jobs?"
"Yessir. Frodo will give you all the time in the world. Would you mind if we walked up Mount Doom while we talk?"
