US has $2 trillion sitting in banks - it needs to be invested or we risk a new depression

Ideologically I 100% agree with you. I was speaking from the standpoint of when the government spends a bunch of money on technology in the investment phase and turns it over the private sector for implementation and upkeep. As long as companies are regulated as utilities I don’t have a problem with it being private or public (like single payer vs government health care).

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Funny, as I recall from the award-winning “This American Life” episodes “A Giant Pool of Money”, the original cause of the 2008 collapse was banks desperately trying to find ways to invest, because the Fed has lowered US bond rates to lower than inflation, so they couldn’t use their preferred vehicle.

So banks went for sub-prime mortgages…

Lesson was: sure, you want to spur investment, but many investments are crap and destroy value.

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But then they don’t get to sit on the taps and control it!

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And run a 12 step program for water addiction.

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Sorry, not buying that. I had plenty of friends and acquaintances that said the same thing about Trump. The suffering and misery if a new depression happens will hit the worst off the hardest.

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Listen to NPR’s Marketplace https://www.marketplace.org/people/kai-ryssdal tonight’s piece is exactly on this topic.

Actually it does work…it’s just not money that is trickling down on the lower classes.

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To get the diversity of industry needed to soak up the cash, technology should be deregulated out of the exclusive ownership of tech oligopolies. Patent exclusivity keeps the world from from goin’ 'round.

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Not a win/win. The public loses money in the end since they’re handing over a public investment to a private entity to profit from, but if I was a Pres and that’s what it took to get that critical, long overdue project moving, I’d look at it as a necessary bribe to grease the wheels of industry and sign it the second it hit my desk. At this point it’s probably too late but it’d be insane not to try to deal with AGW any way possible.

The problem there was that the Bush Jr. administration didn’t institute tighter mortgage requirements or make changes in how the rating agencies worked, because “libruls want to destroy the American Dream” and because “regulation ba-a-ad.”

That lesson still hasn’t been learned to the degree it should have been after the disaster of 2008.

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He said it better than I did earlier.

Made some great yellow snow!

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Or tax cuts for the wealthy will kick start the economy…

/S

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Just think of all the good that Trump could have done for the American economy over the last 20 years if not for all the crippling Federal taxes he wasn’t paying.

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That’s kind of nonsensical though.

To have a government asset to privatise, the government needs to invest in it beforehand.
To avoid (the very many) negatives of privatisation, they simply need to refrain from privatising it.
At no point is privatisation at all necessary or relevant to the initial creation of the government asset.

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Sure, though as I said if I were presented with that nonsensical choice as my option to get action done it’s better than nothing. Better to do things right, but in a crisis it’s more important to get moving.

Sorry but this is total bullshit. Think of this money as your own and, if you’re experienced and understand investing, you’ll know that putting money into risky assets or investments is the last thing you want to do after woking your ass off to make and save it. Losing money is one of the easiest things to do, keeping it is 10 times harder than earning it, especially if Wall Street gets it’s hand into your pie.

For example, if you pay 1% annually in fees on your investments it eats 40% of your return over time. Bet your broker never told you that.

Don’t believe the lies these so called “experts” profess to be the causes of economic malaise. It’s your money and you best fucking protect it from the wolves at your door promising this, that, and the other “sure thing”.

Remember, if it has a suit on it has something to sell its to their advantage, not yours.

Finally, the only reason Wall Street loses so much money is because they take crazy, greedy bets based on the fact that they know that they have their bail outs in the pocket. What a surprise that another Goldman soldier made it to the head of our bankrupted treasury.

2 trillion ? Heck, just buy another F35. Then it’s gone !

Certainly the Patent system needs some revision - and they need to stop giving patents for non-innovation.

But Patents DO encourage and reward innovators who dump a lot of time and money developing things. Who the hell wants to kill themselves to develop something new only to have it ripped off in China 6 mo later, with no legal recourse. Nothing would stop larger companies from copying and making new products from a smaller business, using their marketing clout and under cutting their price to make them go out of business. It would kill a lot of start up type businesses whose livelihood hinges on a new product or innovation.

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I don’t think you know where most of the $2 trillion is, because it sure as hell ain’t in anyone making less than $250,000 a year’s account - even as well invested seniors.

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