The election of a new president brings the question of what is to be done to solve our current problems and hopefully prevent them from happening again. Today I want to talk about the economy.
Clearly, we need to return to the notions of oversight and transparency. The financial sector has played “Monopoly” with our economy, and crimes have been committed, right under the nose of the Security Exchange Commission and other regulator bodies.
Also, corporations, and wealthy individuals, have not always paid their fair share of taxes.
Even where government had a will to oversee, often transactions were hidden in a miasma of holding companies and “off-shore” accounts. Esoteric devices, such as “credit derivatives” allowed Wall Street to devastate our economy.
Also, certain corporations, because of the nature of “high finance” were able to acquire other corporations and ruin them. For example, Global Crossing, a corporation with 200 employees and no income was able to acquire a corporation with good returns and 12 thousand employees, and then bankrupt that second company. (Nomi Prins, an ex-insider, discusses this and much more in her book, “Other People”s Money).
We have a kind of socialism for the rich and powerful. Through tax breaks and subsidies, many corporations and wealthy people are not paying their share of taxes. Shockingly, in the years 1996-2000, 60 percent of corporations paid no taxes at all! (See the book “Free Lunch,” by David Cay Johnston).
So, I would argue for much stronger regulation and oversight of the financial sector. Beef up the S.E.C. and outlaw devices that are prone to be used to hide transactions from public scrutiny. Outlaw the formation of “shell” offshore subsidiaries like those on the Cayman Islands.
Where laws of have been broken, I would like to see some prison sentences delivered to those culpable. Not merely fines.
Often the fines assessed are but tiny proportions of the pirated gains and do not dissuade future shenanigans.
I would like to see the nationalization of the energy industry. Why do we have to wonder whether the oil companies are gouging us or not? Gas prices should not go up and down like a yo-yo. Let”s take those record profits and put them back into the Treasury.
There still remains foreign policy and the environment, and more?and let us remember, without a livable environment, the other problems are irrelevant.
Nelson Strasser is a resident of Kelseyville. Opinions expressed in all Guest Commentaries are solely those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views or endorsement of the Lake County Record-Bee or its staff.
