Economy

The economy is in recession and headed for depression. We all know that while the unemployment rate is at 8%, with furloughs and pay cuts, the effective rate is more like 15%. Our brilliant politicians and economists believe that people need to borrow more money to spend and the government needs to spend more of our money to solve the problems. All that does is put the burden on our grandchildren and sacrifices the needs of our children for the desires of us. How would "The Greatest Generation" feel about that?

Here are my steps to fixing the economy right now:

1. End withholding for the lowest two tax brackets. That puts money in the pockets of those that need it now. Yes, they will have to pay taxes later, but it is not nearly as deep as the amount taken in taxes.

2. Declare a tax free summer for earners under $75,000. Include the amount paid by their employers for SS and FICA if the company will pay it to the wage earner.

3. Companies that hire individuals that have been unemployed for 6 months or more will be able to deduct the full amount of cost (salary, benefits, taxes, training) from the tax amount owed for 1 year. Yes, this is a double dip on the cost, but gets them off the public assistance.

4. All union wage contracts are to be renegotiated through binding arbitration with the goal of making US companies competitive with the rest of the world. Don't tell me the US automakers can't compete because of US labor rates. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, BMW, Mercedes are doing great with US workers... they aren't paying huge payoffs to UAW.

5. Let some banks, investment firms, insurance companies, big corporations, fail. Stockholders will pay more attention to the value of the company if their money is at risk. Also, do not allow publicly traded stock to be valued as an asset on the books. Only hard assets like real property.

6. Promote debt reduction by people. I am not a fan of using the tax code as motivation, but let the president use his bully pulpit to promote debt reduction. When people reduce their debt and government reduces its debt, the greatest nation will be in a better position to help other nations.

Given the implementation of these 6 simple actions, the economy will grow immediately at a reasonable rate and consumer confidence will spread.