A participatory democracy alternative to big slow bail-out bills. The funds get approved by sortition juries, and where they spend it, until
it gets spent for fungible items like toilet paper. A slight variation on the version in my Participatory Democracy Blog
We all know the problems with corporate compensation systems run amok.
Of course, its continuing that Goldmann Sachs and JP Morgan Chase have
profits and renewed strengh.
Yet both received (and repaid) bail money and paid
them back.
And it is expected that at least Goldman Sachs will
give out more bonuses.
And unfortunately, the TARP and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus
bill) were very long. I heard on CSPAN, Michele Bachmann complaining about
the large bills (around one thousand pages) that are brought to the legislatures
in a day or so without giving Congress time to read them.
Time to read bills is an issue of this Republican Congress person from Minnesota.
And only six percent of the stimulus allocated
to agencies such as for highways or energy efficiency
has been spent as of May 22nd. But is there an alternative to these big
bills?
We need to track the StimBucks, and have juries vote on each expenditure.
Thus, if there is a project or a bail out, money is put in a separate account
for that business or individual. When they purchase a good or service, the money
moves to a separate service. Each movement must be approved by a jury
of randomly selected citizens, or at least randomly selected from the 15,000,000
unemployed or underemployed. Eventually, some goods and services are "off-the-shelf" like toilet paper for the business's bathrooms or an individual. Then,
the money goes to the account.
The stimulus money thus is targetted like an anticancer drug or radiation
attached to a monoclonal antibody.
The money goes to the persons who need it. What are the side effects of
stimulus money.
Large bonusses to financial executives who most believe
created the problem, are particularly galling, of course.
But stimulus checks helped on-line adult web sites grow their traffic
by twenty to thirty percent. (Admittedly, other
economists analyzing this data show a much lower rate.
But much more to the point is whether a is saved, used to pay
off debt or spent.
Economosts don't know what the size of the multiplier is. That is,
how much will the economy or GDP increase as a proportion of the eight-hundred
dollar stimulus. There are policy lags and we don't know how much will be
saved and how much will be saved.
A stimulus bill, monetary policy are like
broad spectrum like whole-body radiation or conventional monotherapy.
I am proposing that juries finely target the stimulus, and much of the
resulting spending by the people and businesses receiving the stimulus dollars,
precisely at those people who need it.
-
Graham Bowley, "Two Giants Emerge from the Ruins on
Wall Street"
The New York Tmes, July 17 2009, Volume CLVIII No 54, 739
Page A1 and A3
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Paul Krugman, The Joy of Sachs, July 17 2009, Volume CLVIII No 54, 739,
page A23
-
Graham Bowley and Jenny Anderson, "For Goldman,A Swift Return to Lofty
Profits" Page A1, The New York Times, Monday July 13th 009,
Vol CLVIII, NO 54,735.