"Oh Joe, Joe, you've never heard such cheers!" the resplendent, ebullient Monroe said.
DiMaggio, knowingly, but also ever-so-reservedly responded, "Yes, I have Marilyn. Yes, I have."
There will be few cheers for 2008. It was, to put it mildly, a down year.
The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, had declined 41% as of the start of this week -- its worst annual performance since declining 47% in 1931 at the start of the Great Depression.
The U.S. government, via the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury, intervened repeatedly to first stabilize the financial system, then to stabilize key institutions in the financial system. As a result, the U.S. taxpayer is now a major stockholder in many companies/enterprises. The U.S. recession continued, and a global recession started. The commodity boom proved to be a bubble, and gasoline plummeted from the stratosphere of $4 per gallon to the ground, about $1.60. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant; the New York Yankees finished a dismal third. Tampa Bay? Enough. On to 2009.
The Top 10 economic wishes for 2009
-A huge fiscal stimulus package. Minimally: $700-800 billion; ideally, $1.2 trillion, with $800 billion in the first tranche. The package should be weighted toward infrastructure work, aid to states, unemployment compensation extension, investment tax credits, and education investment.
-An energy policy. In conjunction with auto sector assistance, Congress should pass an energy policy that points the U.S. toward zero oil imports by 2020, and that also increases energy efficiency systemwide: autos, homes, and businesses.
-Transparency, for you and me. Congress should pass specific, punitive laws that eliminate 'off balance sheet' items -- a leverage-era gimmick. Everything must remain on a corporation's balance sheet -- from paper clips in storage to bad loans in Katmandu.
-Financial regulation galore. Consistent with the above, Congress must, among other reforms overhaul the financial services code to ensure that banks are responsible for loans originated. Heads the lenders profit, tails the U.S. taxpayer pays must end.
-Financial conversation, all the more. Television financial/business news is rife with yelling, trivialization, sensationalism, and superficiality. It would be great if one or two shows concentrated on substantive, intelligent analysis that investors can use, and calm discourse, sans the hype.
-Negotiation, the norm. Here's to settling all international disputes via mediation. Negotiations and ballots, not tariffs and bullets. True, the international community must sometimes use force to repel an aggressor or eliminate a malignant threat, but mediation should be the norm.
-Health care reform. Congress should pass a health care act that both wrings inefficiencies out of the system, lowers salaries for physicians and surgeons, and that provides universal health care coverage. Every major, industrialized economy has achieved this goal: so should the U.S.
-Housing tax credit. A $5,000 federal income tax credit for every home buyer of a primary residence, not a second or a vacation home. (A $15,000 tax credit for high-cost metro area of N.Y., L.A., Boston, San Francisco etc.)
-A better year for the Dow. This won't take much: if the Dow finishes flat in 2009, that will be a double-digit improvement over 2008.
-U.S. economic growth. No, it doesn't have to be a return to the Roaring 20s, or even the Roaring 90s, just an economic climate in which there's robust job growth, declining unemployment, rising median incomes and corporate profits, innovation, business formations large and small, with new technologies deployed, among other benefits.
And, of course, peace on earth, good will toward men and women.
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Financial Editor Joseph Lazzaro is based in New York.
Closing Bell: When We All Love the PIIGS (NBG, SQNM, PG, ERTS, KO)
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Chasing Value: Hasbro Earnings Makes My Point
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-29-2008 @ 9:57PM
David said...
Time runs out for every one and every thing. The sand in the hourglass is draining particularly quickly, though, for America's present monetary and banking systems. One need not be a bloodhound to sniff the scent of crisis in the air. Under present conditions, the General Government will not provide a proper solution to a monetary and banking crisis, because the denizens of the Congress, the White House, and the Treasury are the primary perpetrators of the problem. True, as a matter of law the Constitution delegates to the General Government plenary power to reform the monetary and banking systems to reintroduce silver and gold as the government's exclusive media of exchange, to separate bank and state, to prohibit or strictly regulate the inherently fraudulent practices of fractional-reserve banking, to withdraw the United States from all international and supra-national monetary and banking schemes, and so on. But law and fact are two different matters.
12-30-2008 @ 11:40AM
George said...
HERE'S THE TRUTH, FOLKS...The consequences of spending $5-7 A DAY more than we earn(look at the $50-70billion a month trade deficit), for every man woman and child in the country(that's 300 million), for the last ten years, are becoming evident.........What's interesting is that the new man at the helm is proposing we spend even more than we earn(did I hear a $800billion rescue package?). Isn't that rather like having a drink or two to cure last night's hangover? We would still be alcoholics. The only logical answer(except one) is that we have to accept a lower standard of living...Not by much, but we cannot continue to spend more than we earn.....There is one other solution, produce and sell more, but is that likely? ? XMAS IS OVER FOLKS!
12-30-2008 @ 6:30AM
HELP TAXPAYERS said...
HELP TAXPAYERS , H.E.L.L. WITH "BAILOUT COMPANIES WHO'S ALL ON A BANDWAGON ... CEO'S FAULT ANYWAY STUCK THE BILLIONS IN THERE PERSONAL BANK ACCTS , FREEZE THERE ASSETS AND ANYTHING ELSE THEY OWN , SELL IT , PAY BACK THE COMPANIES THEY RAN IN THE GROUND . STOP THE "GOLDEN PARACHUTES" THIS IS THE BLAME . GOVERNMENT JUST GIVEN THERESELVES $4500 RAISE , WHY SHOULD TAXPAYERS BAIL EVERYONE OUT WHEN THEY'RE THE ONES WHO NEEDS THE HELP .........20 - 30 MILLION PEOPLE WILL BE LAID OFF . WHERE ARE THEY GOING TO FOUND A JOB IF ALL THE ILLEGALS AND FOREIGNERS ALL STEAL 'AMERICANS JOBS " ....
12-30-2008 @ 8:16AM
Gary said...
I've heard all these gloom and doomers before, they pop up after anything negative occurs. The fact is, like the 70's 80's, and even early 90's recessions (one with 10% unemployment) we all seem to bounce back. China's growth will continue and US companies will start selling products again all over the world. And hording piles of cash which will be worthless once inflation takes off again (which it will since the government is flooding the system with money) is no answer. Start making prudent investment decisions now. And stop being so afraid. If the world tanks we will all be in the same boat, and your cash will only be good for lighting fires or toilet paper anyway.
12-30-2008 @ 12:59PM
Debora said...
You who wrote this article....idiot!!!
All this country needs in an accross the board tax cut! Investment, business, and income tax cut...that's it! You will see this ecomony roaring back.
12-30-2008 @ 1:34PM
Debora said...
.....oh, and one more thing. Keep all Democrats hands off our money!!!!! They screwed it up the first time with the banking crisis, and now those same people want to "fix" it.
12-30-2008 @ 1:33PM
peter ripley said...
What a commie-pinko!!! What leftist think tank or communist country did this guy come from? Or am I now IN a communist country?!
12-30-2008 @ 1:48PM
cdub said...
Basically, I'd love for the Federal and State Government to stay the hell out of my business and my life. This economy will fiux itself with oput the help of these frickin idiots the run our Government.