WhereistheOutrage....

A response to email (click here)

Q. What is the economic stimulus payment?

A. Actually there has been very little, if any serious talk of an economic stimulus payment , other than continuing the Bush tax break for the middle class. If you are serious about discussing economic stimulus then it is this Bush tax break that should be examined.

When the middle class has money they are apt to use that money to buy goods and services, giving others jobs. It is well established economic theory, as well as common sense if you think about it very long, that if nobody has any money there will be no jobs.

Q. Where does the government get the money?

A. Most money you deal with was created out of nothing, by private banks. I worked for banks for 25 years and attended Business of Banking curriculum at Cornell University. Sorry if it seems shocking; study it, it's true. When the big banks lost bunches of that money they made from nothing in the 2008 crash, in the process of making their management rich by the way, the government then had to create money to bail the banks out. That government created money went to the banks, not you and me.

Since the loosening of financial regulations in the 1990s (Thank you Bill Clinton for messing that up) the banks and their allied financial institution, such as insurance companies, used the privilege of creating money out of nothing to create huge profits for themselves and undertake the greatest asset redistribution in the history of the world. These assets basically went from you and me to the Banks and their associated financial companies. And it was no accident that 700,000 jobs were being lost each month while the banks were getting their $700 billion TARP dollars. Actually it was a secret additional $7 trillion dollars that was created out of nothing by government and given to large corporations in the year after the crash! (See http://dailycaller.com/2011/12/01/congress-was-unaware-of-7-77-trillion-in-secret-fed-loans-ahead-of-tarp-vote/ ). Look it up, it's true. It is acknowledged by those who did it.

Q. What is the purpose of a stimulus payment?

It is true that too much of our money goes to stimulate foreign economies. And I DO find that troubling. The situation has caused me to change my life-long believe that there should be no trade tariffs. Making importers' goods a bit more expensive, if done judiciously, might help move manufacturing back to U.S.

But be careful! The U.S. does export goods and services to other countries. Democrats, Republicans, Independents and all should focus on increasing exports. “Exports in the United States increased to $182 billion in November of 2012 ” (see http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/exports ). People do buy stuff from us! We want to pursue policies that help that grow. Tariffs too high historically start trade wars that reduce all counties' exports. This is called a trade war. Trade wars are associated with depressions. Smart policy tuned to specific needs at time is called for. There is no silver bullet.