I have been following the financial crisis that has been brewing and I will give all my respect to bonddad for his excellent insight.
I am a big picture generalist and claim no level of expertise. I do have ideas that sound good to me that I want to share and have people help me develop.
The frame that I have been pushing locally at various meetings is that taxes are an investment and the reason people are against higher taxes is that they aren't seeing a large enough return on their investment.
This latest bailout is a prime example. It seems like we just gave away billions, but we received collateral in the form of all those worthless sub prime loans. We need to show some return from this investment.
We should take all the property that is associated with these loans and turn it into affordable housing. We could provide group homes to troubled teens, or set up homes for the developmentally challenged, or provide housing upgrades for foster families along with housing for low income families.
This housing is already degrading in value and the sooner we step in and get some value out of it the better. I assume that this housing exists all over the US so if the feds didn't want to handle this they could give the states control of property in each state.
By taking these loans and the property off of the banks books it helps make the banks more solvent and by using the housing in creative and beneficial ways we can strengthen the people that need the help the most.
I am sure there are flaws in my logic so I welcome your comments.