Not Enough Time to Say What Needs to be Said
Posted by Michael A. Kamperman on July 20, 2009
On Tuesday, July 21, 2009, I will be interviewed on the Mind Your BIZness on-line radio program. The program is broadcast continuously for 24 hours only on July 21. The link for those of you that are interested and would like to listen is: http://www.mindyourbizness.com/ If you do happen to listen feel free to post your thoughts on the comment section for this post. After my 15 minute interview I thought gee I wish I had said this, or I wish I would have emphasized that point. I simply had way too much to say and way too little time to say it. This led me to think what would I say to President Obama about the economy if I only had 2 minutes of his valuable time? I certainly wouldn’t have time to go into the background of analyzing how the economy wound up in the position it did. I wouldn’t have time to waste saying who was to blame for the mess we are in. I would only have time to emphasize the seriousness of the situation and what must be done about it.
The first thing I would say is this, “Mr. President, the number one problem facing America is the never ending stream of foreclosures . We currently have a national supply of single family homes to accommodate 70% of all Americans. However, well under 50% of Americans currently qualify to purchase a new home because mortgage standards are way too tight. There is a huge discrepancy between supply and demand. As long as there are more homes to buy than there are buyers, the foreclosures will not stop. The first step in fixing the economy is providing access to affordable mortgage credit to far more Americans. Mr. President, the same problem exists for autos. Fold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back into the federal government and start guaranteeing home and auto loan securities.” Well, after those few short sentences my first minute of the President’s time is up. I now have only one minute left to make another point. I need to make sure it is the most important point I have to make.
My second point would be “Mr. President, we have millions of people who are unemployed with many more on the way. Last year one in two college graduates had a job offer upon graduation. This year it is one in five. This has to change now. Lower the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare to encourage older workers to retire and open up jobs for younger workers. To pay for this have a heart to heart meeting with the Federal Reserve and have them buy back most of the outstanding Treasury bonds in existence. This would save the country $400 billion a year in interest payments, which can then be used to pay the $400 billion cost of lowering the retirement age to 60. Quit letting China and the bond vigilantes dictate U.S. policy. Print them their checks first and tell them thanks for their respected input, but at this time the U.S. is choosing to avoid any chance at re-entering a new great depression.” That’s it. My two minutes are up. For a rambling version that fails to concisely make the above points you can tune in to Mind Your BIZness.
