Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Freedom’s Call

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I believe that the forces of history are larger than the people living within them. A handful of people try to push back at these waves – and those who do so with virtuous reasons (like those who truly deserve the Peace Prize, such as Walesa and Mandela) are remembered fondly. But as a whole, humanity is heaved by these waves, for better or worse.

The "wave" right now is pro-government, pro-taxes, pro-regulation, anti-business, and I think we're only a couple of years into it. My rantings against investment banks might be misinterpreted as those of a socialist fringe, but it's not. I am pro-business, pro-freedom, and anti-bureaucracy. It doesn't surprise me that Washington's answer for what had harmed this country is more government, because……..well…….what else would a government say? Self-interest holds sway, whether for a person or an institution.

Fortunes made through innovation and industry are admirable. Fortunes made through rigged games and government bailouts are contemptible. That's why someone like Steven P. Jobs is worth about 100,000 Lloyd Blankfeins.

But the lure of socialism in troubled times grows stronger, and as I think times are going to get worse, I think government's "help" is just going to keep increasing. If public outrage can spur on legislation that we're seeing these days in a year where the market has exploded higher, what do you think things will be like if the market falls for a few years?

These little videos are potent reminders of what was……….

…….and, cornball as it might be, here is some U.S. propaganda (and I use the term fondly) declaring what this nation was all about. That's the America that I love.

If I Could Slay the Dragon (by oulous)

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Well there are many dragons right now from congress to Bernanke but lets just say for simplicity they are all orgy-fied into one master beast and we just slew it. I want to make this post group think. Post your idea(s) on what you would do to actually fix a broken economy unlike the people currently fixing it to oblivion. Maybe we can create an Internet snowball and throw it as Washington and flatten the place.

1. Let Goldman Sachs die free market style and debunk the myth of too big to fail. I think too big to fail is an unpopular myth and these companies are actually too big to succeed. The destruction of pure capital in my opinion is actually a good thing. What happens when you create years and years of fake wealth that keeps growing by eating magic expanding never ending gobstoppers? That money wants more money. To get more that money seeks increasingly exotic products in order to provide a return superior to savings. Eventually it collapses from its own exoticism and we get a financial meltdown. The financial system would have been well served to punish those whom produced epic failure, instead it rewarded them by giving them a re-load to their self destructive canon. We had one chance to destroy an excess of fake capital and instead we saved it.

If we had let Goldman, GM, AIG, and everyone else too big to succeed die their services and deposits would have redistributed to smaller more nimble companies whom would have had years of competitive growth ahead.

Investments banks – Boutiques could have sifted through the ashes and gained surviving deposits and provided services.

Banks – With government assistance we could have redistributed FDIC insured deposits to smaller smarter better run banks.

GM – Let all but one of the big three die and use it as a stop gap to a new era of American car manufacturing. Use some "bailout" money to fund small nimble start ups and get America to take the lead in manufacturing advanced technology vehicles.

Chapter II

Ahhh housing. Trying to re inflate over inflated assets will most likely end in failure. We will either get a second wave of a housing crash or just have this long drawn out zombie mash up where people keep tossing homes at each other like hot potatoes because they can't actually afford them. Lets talk solution, and yes I'm actually promoting a government bailout here, libertarians be damned.

I propose a 10 year tax deduction program be rewarded to anyone who agrees to sell their house at an assessed value from 1998. If you agree to sell your house at its 1998 value you then get a tax break equivalent to the difference in value from 1998 to now spread over 10 years. The buyer of the property agrees that for the same 10 year period their house is no longer part of the free market and can only rise in value by a very small fixed percentage. If they sell the house they can only sell for a price dictated by the annual percentage rise in value as determined by the number of years out 10 they have held the property.

The bank that gave the original mortgage also receives a tax break based on the difference between the 1998 assessed value and current assessed value.

Perhaps a plan like this could get the housing market moving again without causing individuals and regional banks massive losses. Yes you do lose something as you should but re pricing assets to match peoples salaries is what really matters and this is one possible way to do it.

I am not an economist, I am a twitchy fingered day trader that uses the profits to support other pursuits. I don't know if I am way off base I just know the solutions Government Goldman came up with amounted to a giant bank robbery and did nothing to strengthen the middle class which is essential for the survival of America..

So what say you? What are your ideas for a real fix, help me make a giant snow man of ideas for the Capital lawn this winter.