Stimulus

Well. I did have a dialup internet connection while I was in New Mexico, but there were so many problems with my laptop that it was hardly worth the bother. The battery won't charge, browsers crash, and something from AOL (which came with the machine) won't stop notifying me that an AOL connection is Available! I don't care.

So, except for some emails, IMs with the household in California, and a few scattered comments on other people's blogs, I didn't participate much in the wonderful world of the Internets while I was there. For one thing, I was very busy with the house and all of its many requirements, and for another I was informed that a household member in California was a big prize winner: VIP tickets to seven country music concerts -- and back stage passes for meet 'n' greets -- (Kenny, Keith, Tim, Alan, Brad, B&D, and Rascal Flatts) and would have to start going to shows pronto. Which meant, I thought, I would have to return early. Or something. Actually, I didn't, though. All sorts of upheaval, in our own lives and those of others -- recruiting people to go to the concerts with was quite a job, besides all the travel arrangements to be made, and on and on, made this into a "stimulus" issue, despite the free tickets. There were so many other things to consider, buy, arrange, take care of just to take advantage of the grand prize. You couldn't sit home bemoaning your fate as it were. By some happenstance, things worked out pretty well all in all at least for the Kenny concert in San Francisco. But that's another story.

One of the things I wanted to make note of was what additional effect the recession was having on my corner of rural New Mexico. What I found was that the Stimulus was in nearly full gear. The town has a whole host of infrastructure issues they've been preparing to deal with for over a year, and so they had plenty of shovel ready projects on tap. One of the coordinators of New Mexico Stimulus funds (or maybe even two of them) is from the town, so it was relatively easy to approval and funds in the pipeline to go ahead, so the water and sewer systems are being upgraded (yes, an area has actual "city" water and sewers!), roads are being repaired, fancy new signs are being put up welcoming travelers, and on and on. There's a corporation yard full of materials and equipment ready to go on other projects. It's really something. While things had looked pretty bleak indeed in March, they're looking up now. Quite a few people had left the area -- no work after the biggest employer in the area shut down -- houses were abandoned, the one on the property behind us had burned (arson), and things were grim.

One of the houses nearby had been vacant since April, the family that had lived there moving closer to the husband's work. When I was there last week, though, a new family was moving in as I was packing to drive back to California. The property behind ours sported a new mobile home as of May, and someone was living there until just before I left, when they moved out. No more businesses had closed in town, and one that was teetering on the brink of closure was doing fine now, so the owners said. People's moods were much better than before.

And I expected things to be worse, perhaps because they are getting grimmer in California by the day. Oh, a budget deal is rumored to be likely within the next few days, but it will be a monstrosity, like the last one -- only worse. People are not happy here in the Golden State, and they are not likely to be any happier after the slashing and burning of the State Budget.

They still know how to laugh in New Mexico.

Neither So Big Nor So Bold -- and Not Very Fast, Either

There's been a whole lot of hooey about nothing at all (eg: Caroline, Burris, Blago, Richardson, et al) this festive New Year Season, a lot of Israeli propaganda about deadly events in the Middle East, and a curious and disappointing level of hype and "well, maybes" about the vaunted economic "stimulus" Mr. Obama is going to start off his administration with, bold and big, right out of the gate. Signing bills the minute he takes office, putting people back to work, back in their homes, back on their feet.

No wait. Well, maybe not. Miss McConnell over in the Senate House is throwing one of her patented hissy-fits yet again, demanding to know just why such and such is being done, and wanting account of every dime, every precious penny that is disbursed from the Treasury on Mr. Obama's Harebrained Schemes. Of course Miss McConnell was not at all concerned about the hundreds of billions and trillions that were extorted by the bankers of Wall Street without the least bit of accountability just a couple of months ago. But of course that was then, this is now.

But wait. That's not all. Rather than a stimulus that helps individuals, families, and communities, we're talking about a dribble, a few dollars a week to those who are employed, nothing to those who lose their jobs, in the form of reduced withholding, but only slightly reduced, and likely only temporary. Nothing at all to keep people in their homes and forestall foreclosure, just as there has been nothing at all to put a stopper in that part of the economic meltdown since it first reared its ugly head years ago.

There may be some infrastructure repair and construction funding, but that won't get under way in the middle of winter, and even when it does start up, it won't put more than a fraction of the unemployed back to work, and it was never intended to.

My bet is that a shift to a "Green Economy" won't happen, at least not so you would notice, in part because of Miss McConnell and her flounces.

Broad hints are being offered that the Bank Bailout will continue and even accelerate, hundreds more billions and trillions unaccountably down that rathole, with nothing at all to show for it, except that we ordinary folk are "allowed to live" one more day.

There may -- or may not -- be some loans to some states and localities to help cover some of their operating deficits for a limited time. But one can almost be certain that California's catastrophic budgetary implosion (and we recalled Gray Davis over something much smaller by comparison) will not be one of the candidates for Federal assistance.

I don't know how it is in your town, but the fallout from the economic earthquake that's going on is really showing up around me, and it ain't pretty. Businesses are closing right and left, some that have been around for a long time and are institutions around here. Car dealerships have almost completely vacated a long strip of suburban road where they once dominated. I was driving in a long-established neighborhood not long ago, and it seemed like every other house was in foreclosure, offered for auction or for sale by one of the foreclosure specialist companies. House prices in many neighborhoods -- not all -- have declined 40%-50%-even 60% from their peaks; but in some "exclusive" enclaves, prices have held steady or even increased slightly. What that says right there is that some folks still have plenty of money to live their ritzy lives, while as for the rest? Oh well!

The number of people living on the streets has increased noticeably, and this in the middle of winter. Not good. Homeless camps are springing up all over. Wherever there is some flat empty space and at least a hint of shelter. Police are being a little more tolerant of the homeless than in the past. But property crimes are increasing fast, burglary and robbery statistics showing worrying trends upward. I hear the sirens of police cars a lot more than I used to.

Helping agencies are running out of money and goods to help with and individuals are running out of resources to bulk up what's missing. It's a vicious cycle, and really there are few if any signs that this problem -- which continues to get worse -- will be addressed at all.

Nearly 2 million people lost their jobs in 2008 alone; that many or perhaps even more are expected to lose their jobs in 2009; the job creation programs Mr. Obama has talked about may never happen on a major scale at all, but even if they do, they won't get under way for months if not years.

In other words, things will continue to get worse while they get worse, and what the government intends to do about it -- at the level of individuals, families, and communities -- is the very least possible, with the bulk of what "help" there is continuing to go to the banks and Wall Street as extortion payments.

What's been revealed so far of Mr. Obama's Stimulus Package looks an awful lot like what Herbert Hoover was content with in 1931 and 1932.

Ain't we got fun.

What Should Happen

I actually heard a version of this notion on the radio as I was driving this afternoon listening to the Tom Sullivan show. Right wing hack that he is, sometimes Sullivan lets a smidge of uncommon sense slip through.

The idea goes something like this:

While trillions upon trillions of dollars are being shoveled out of the Treasury to support the lavish ways and styles of the plutocracy, the common folks are withering on the vine, their homes foreclosed, cars repossessed, jobs disappearing, credit evaporating. The crunch on Main Street is gathering steam even as the hit on Wall Street is deeply cushioned to say the least.

So why not do a "bottom up" stimulus? This is something people have been clamoring for and it is something the Powers That Be have resisted with all their souls and all their might.

So do it anyway. And the way to do it is to issue a credit account to every taxpayer, an account of say $100,000 for individuals, $200,000 for families (more or less), that could only be used for certain things, such as:

to pay down or pay off a mortgage with the limitation that the mortgage must be at least 24 months old.


• to pay off credit card balances more than two years old.
  
  
• to purchase a new fuel efficient vehicle and/or pay off a car loan
  
  
• to pay off certain other debts (such as medical bills)
  
  

to purchase certain kinds of efficient appliances or to weatherize or improve homes, etc.



Any amounts not used within, say, 12 months would revert to the treasury.

Something like this, essentially getting large amounts of money into individual taxpayers' hands to use for specific purposes intended to "turn the economy around" could well do the trick.

Throwing more trillions at phantoms of wealth on Wall Street and in the bankers' boardrooms can't and won't do it.

Putting significant amounts of money in circulation at the bottom of the pyramid just might.