- via Hullabaloo and dday, this suggestion from Bob Herbert to raise money by following the advise of Willie Sutton (you remember him, don't you?): go where the money is. And that would be, partly, with the stock brokers and traders of paper signifying wealth. The suggestion: a stock transfer fee. From the Herbert piece:
The economist Dean Baker is a strong advocate of a financial transactions tax. This would impose a small fee — ranging up to, say, 0.25 percent — on the sale or transfer of stocks, bonds and other financial assets, including the seemingly endless variety of exotic financial instruments that have been in the news so much lately.
According to Mr. Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, the fees would raise a ton of money, perhaps $100 billion or more annually — money that the government sorely needs.
Makes sense to me. I confess I am not a trader so my contribution would be minimal. Btw, did you manage to catch The Ascent of Money on PBS last night? A two hour program that followed money down through the ages. Informative and entertaining. One of the messages that is loud and clear from this program: nothing new with our latest financial meltdown - it's all been done before. Robbers, thieves, cheats, liars; and greedy sob's as well.
- Time to start screaming and yelling about the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. Remember 'war is not the answer'? Remember the primacy of diplomacy? Remember our President elect promicing to change the way we do things? Go here to learn more about getting Afghanistan right. We really don't want to spend the next eight years pulling our hair out over the Obama War in that tempestuous region of the world. Or any region of the world.
- Prediction: The Colts and the NFL are going to miss Coach Tony Dungy. The Indy Star's farewell link.
- And speaking of farewells: five days and thirteen plus hours left in the administration of GWB. Dang. I shouldn't have brought that up. Sorry.
- Diane is moving about in the kitchen making breakfast sounds. Guess I'll head on out there to see what's good this morning. Of course, could go for a walk first - sun's up and our deep freeze hasn't arrived yet. Decisions, decisions...
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