An Open Letter to President-Elect Barack Obama: How a Regulatory Makeover Can Fix the Financial Crisis

This is the most Maxist/Socialistic idea that I have heard from any of my newletters that I have "ever" subscribed too. What's he doing writing for you. Although I find your commentaries very interesting and sometimes enlightening, having Mr Gilani as one of your writers will now make me skeptical of any economic analysis you put forth. I find it difficult to believe that the Oxford Club or any of its advisors would have any affilation with someone who espouses this type of anti-free market philosophy.

FOFL

You said "With the mandate of the people you (meaning the Messiah – Barrack Hussain Obama) have an opportunity to override the self interest of entrenched politicians, the inordinate influence of lobbyists and the disturbing greed of vested interests. The old walls of crony capitalism are held together by self-serving, self-policing and self-destructive regulatory bodies."

Never happen, he is one of them.

As to your plan, it is just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Thanks for the comic relief!

This is an excellent, thoughtful, and in my opinion absolutely correct letter to our president.

Thank you for expressing your thoughts, which many of us share.

Great!! Let's be involved thoroughly and deeply.

Sounds like more of the same to me. Over regulation and government interference got us into this mess. Why would more of the same change anything? And who is smart enough to believe he or she can solve the worlds financial problems. Such a person should scare most thinking people. It sure does me.

There is nothing new under the sun:

"When Diocletian came to the throne in 284, he found three great problems before him… The third and hardest was mainly economic – to restore the dwindled agriculture, commerce, and population of the Empire. On this Diocletian and Constantine went wrong together. They not only failed to cure the evil, but greatly increased it. Not much was gained by remitting taxes that could not be paid, and settling barbarian colonists and barbarian serfs in the wasted provinces. Serious economic difficulties have moral causes, and there was no radical cure short of a complete change in the temper of society. Yet much might have been done by a permanent reduction of taxation and a reform of its incidence and of the methods of collection. Instead of this, the machinery of government (and its expense) was greatly increased. The army had to be held in check by courts of Oriental splendour and a vast establishment of corrupt officials. We can see the growth of officialism even in the language, if we compare the Latin words in Athanasius with those in the New Testament. So heavier taxes had to be levied from a smaller and poorer population. Taxation under the Empire had never been light ; in the third century it grew heavy, under Diocletian it was crushing, and in the later years of Constantine the burden was further increased by the enormous expenditure which built up the new capital like the city in a fairy tale. We are within sight of the time when the whole policy of the government was dictated by dire financial need."
- The Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I p. 20 (1911)

It was 9/11. I can tell everyone I've never witnessed anything more disgusting. I remember that sentiment well, and reckoned I'll never have the chance to revisit it in my lifetime… at least, not in a very long time.

Apparently, I was wrong… Merely 7 short years! And the fact that something as shameless as this so-called 'crisis,' can spout from the 'mecca of world-class management' — rather than some corrupt third-world syndicate — makes it all the more appalling.

One can argue that the crimes of 9/11 was connoted by morbid ideology. But such 'Economic Crimes Against Humanity,' as these 'elites of the civilized world' brought forth, can only be attributed to quintessential — and abysmal — Greed And Self-aggrandizement. To them, morality may not even have a place in their toilets, unless it got stuck in there somehow!

Yet, unlike 9/11, nobody in a position to call the shots had, so far, uttered one decent word about giving these 'elites' what they truly deserve.

Could it be because this thing reaches all the way to the very top — to those deemed untouchable, and too numerous to contend with?

This still-unfolding mess is huge, to be sure. As for the enormity of connivance… Readers, judge for yourselves. Personally, I'd say — What Chamberlain, Gamelin, Hitler, Himmler, and Stalin were to political history, these 'elites' should be to financial history.

Perhaps 'Devils-in-Disguise' are Real, and from this point onwards, the phrase 'Crisis of Confidence' should be reappraised in a 'new-and-improved' context.

Sad… Chilly too!

Regulations have their place, just don't forget: Rules Are Made To Be Broken.

The crux of the matter: Moral Fibre!

… How do you regulate that?

I can not imagine the vitriol that this writing has evoked, but the vitriol is self demeaning, thus future comments from those individuals are only worthy in the process of developing a list of those who should be ignored.

Some regulation would help but it is not the solution. The real problem is a Government engineered and subsidized Positive Feedback Ponzi Scheme. Every time there was corrective Negative Feedback, Bush and our so called leadership made changes to keep the party going.

A more certain plan would be an Immigration Moratorium or reduction to about 100K people a year until we are back to at least normal employment, have a path to energy independence, and ideally have a national population plan in place to understand what the constraints actually are in terms of energy, ecology, and the economy.

Right now the wages of low end workers are stagnant and have been for some years due to the massive illegal and legal immigration we have received. If we stop creating Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" on a national scale and make a firm and declared policy of taking care of our own citizens as our first priority, CONFIDENCE in the future would skyrocket, wage earners at the lower end would see their wages rise (or at the very least see improved job prospects). That would stop the increase in foreclosures and stabilize the housing market, thus freeing the economy. Tax receipts would be up while liabilities like unemployment and welfare would go down.

President Obama will spend trillions to create or recapture about 3 million jobs (over $250K for each job). My plan of an immigration moratoium (or reduction to 100K per year) from over a million a year would recapture those 3 million jobs in Obama's first term at NO COST to the government/taxpayers.
Acting with determination on illegal immigration and encouraging illegals to leave with a carrot/stick approach would save several million more jobs. In addition to the positive effects of more employed Americans paying taxes and keeping their homes, the liabilities imposed by our massive and excessive immigration would drop and provide a double action to help the economy. We would not need new infrastructure just to keep up and the need for services such as health care, education, and police would drop markedly. Taxes could stabalize or be reduced as well, further boosting the economy. Money could be spent refurbishing our existing infrastructure (which has not been happening) and put into improving education, better reimbursed health care, less crowded jails and better kept police and fire departments.

If we do not take the Immigration reduction approach, every job that is created by Obama's plan will be needed just to keep up with immigration. We will never catch up! The Immigration Moratorium provides the corrective feedback needed to pull us out of recession as well as give long term confidence, especially to our lower end workers.

Mr. Shah Gilani,

I saw you on video and listened to your interview. You were impressive!

You are the kind of person the President is looking for: very intelligent, very knowledgeable on our financial system, an excellent communicator, and a middle of the road level headed person. You are charismatic, down to earth, cool headed, tempered and possess similar qualities of the President.

And most important: you have a sound economic and financial plan to make radical changes to our economic and financial system to bring us out of this quagmire. It should be heard and discussed at the highest level of government.

Keith Fitzgerald who received his masters degree in Hawaii from Chaminade University can attest to it. You would fit in very nicely to President Obama, who was raised in Hawaii, as an economic and financial advisor. You have the right temperament.

I hope you get to meet the President in person.

Our country needs the brightest minds to dig ourselves out of this financial quagmire.

You fit the bill.

I worked, I was a Social Worker until a truck driver "side ended" my car and totaled my back along with it. I would give anything to be able to work now, especially since my husband divorced me after over 20 years (guess he forgot the in sickness or health part)
My disability amounts to less than than 10,000, including the meager child support I sometimes get. I would not be able to claim anything on a tax rebate, because I make so little that I don't have to pay taxes, I am not seeing anything in this plan that would help me, only those whose make more than me.