Can’t Anyone Fix Anything?

Did you ever wake up in the 5AM dark and say with a snarl, “Why can’t ANYONE fix ANYTHING when so much is wrong?”

No, I didn’t just wake up on the wrong side of the bed (does any mother still say that to her kid?).

First there was the business news. You’ll pardon me for starting there; I work in business news. I have to pay attention. So this morning – when we still have 14 million people officially unemployed – and probably 14 million or so more who’ve given up or are underemployed or in the black or underground economy – all anyone on the business cable channels wanted to talk about was whether the Federal Reserve would announce “Operation Twist” when its 2 day meeting ended this afternoon. Which sure enough – since I am writing this toward the end of the day – the Fed did. (It didn’t help to give Wall Street what it wanted; the market tanked big time anyhow).

And what is Operation Twist? Well – you can be sure it’s not the Fed’s name for a rather complex monetary policy. In very simple terms (which is all I understand anyhow) the central bank will sell some of its short term treasury holdings – and buy more long term ones. Which should push long term interest rates down even more than they already are. Which supposedly would make mortgages and other longer term loans more attractive. Thus magically resuscitating the moribund housing market – without doing anything to change bank policies which have made it almost impossible for normal people to qualify for mortgages. Or, in many cases, restructure old ones.

Nor is Operation Twist likely to improve consumers’ sour attitudes about the economy. So they will buy more stuff again. So small businesses can start hiring again. Even with lower interest rates, how many small business people do you know who will go running out to their local bank for a loan now – so they can hire the additional workers they don’t need to keep up with the non-existent growth in demand for their products?

Which brings me to the next issue – also part of the morning’s business news set up. Companies like Oracle –which makes software – are doing just fine, thank you, because big businesses are continuing to increase productivity by buying more complex software --- so they won’t have to hire any more people. Maybe ever. And maybe can even lay off a few more employees.

Which sent me out into the fog – wondering how all those jobless Americans can EVER find decent paying work again. And how the 90 percent of Americans who do have jobs can ever again feel confident about keeping them.

Then came the real downer. My customary early morning walk around a section of northern New Jersey which was badly flooded by Irene and then a week later - flooded again by Lee. Darling little houses with proudly tended flower gardens. Now stripped of all personal goods. Stripped, actually, down to the studs because plasterboard tends to crumble and dissolve in 5, 6, 8 feet of dirty river water.

Whole streets in normally vibrant neighborhoods are just dead now. No one living in the stripped-down houses. No kids biking to school. No one going off to work. Just – nothing.

One big cardboard sign scrawled in red saying it all – “FEMA – BUY ME OUT”.

How I wish I were still reporting local news. There’s a follow up story at every ruined house. Maybe even a business story in local contractors suddenly “flooded” with new work. But the microwave trucks are long gone now – on to the next big – or small -- story. My blue funk turns black.

Then on a pile of newspapers waiting for pickup I see a photo of Texas Governor Rick Perry – now a GOP Presidential candidate -- wearing a suit and tie and a big grin – and brandishing a pistol for no apparent reason. And later, on the car radio, some analyst opining once again that all those tax increases President Obama put in his debt reduction plan are just red meat for the Democratic base, not a prayer of passing the GOP-controlled House in gridlocked Washington as 24/7 electioneering takes over. Welcome to Greece.

I drive 10 miles out of my way – again - because Morris County is waiting for federal funds and design approval to rebuild a tiny bridge on a heavily travelled road that got washed out by an Irene-swollen, raging stream. More than 3 weeks ago. On a regular basis - multiplied by hundreds of car trips -- how much extra greenhouse gas does that add up to?

Why can’t ANYONE fix ANYTHING?? Does it seem to you that anyone – anyone at all with a name you can recognize – is living in the real world? Or even living???

No wonder I’m peevish.

Getting Real: Wisconsin, Washington and Fixing America

It’s very hard to sit here outside the closed circle of America’s political posturers – elected, appointed and self-appointed – and not go ballistic.

We need to stop being Republicans and Democrats and Tea Partiers and Liberals -- and start rethinking everything. We need to look at what works in other countries and in some of our states. And just as important – what DOESN’T work. We have to change. Fast.

And ideologues need not apply.

The total US debt is moving toward 15 and a half TRILLION dollars. PIMCO’s Bill Gross has dumped all the treasuries he held in his benchmark Total Return Fund

So yes – the GOP is right. We DO have to pull back. But cutting all the funding for public broadcasting won’t help.

On the state level, according to State Budget Solutions, unfunded pension obligations now exceed 1 trillion dollars. The Congressional Budget Office projects Social Security will run dry by 2037. Medicare costs for everyone – recipients and taxpayers - are out of control.

I pay taxes just like most everyone else. So here’s what I think.

On the state level, I agree there need to be changes to public union medical and pension plans. But we don’t have to let Republicans destroy public unions (and the few private ones that are left). We all know the real reason for the Wisconsin collective bargaining farce.

That said -- remember most federal government workers don’t have collective bargaining – but most of us would be thrilled with their benefits. The benefit packages for public employees were originally created to make up for lower than private sector salaries. Well that’s long gone

So it’s time for states and union leaders to sit down and reason together. Look at salaries in both private and public sectors. Look at benefits. Average it all out. Relatively few taxpayers who aren’t working for government still have traditional pensions. And we pay a huge part of our own health insurance and medical costs. It may not be particularly civilized. But it’s reality.

It would be very, very unfair to cut pensions and raise medical costs unduly for workers who have already retired or who are within 5 years of retiring. They can’t recoup.

So let’s start with a cutoff age. Say 50. Everyone younger – including state and federal workers – should have to wait until at least 68 before collecting pensions, Social Security and Medicare. Maybe even 70 since we’re all, supposedly, living so much longer. Unless you’re medically unable to work. Now this doesn’t mean you’d HAVE to work until you hit 68. It just means you couldn’t collect any public retirement money till then. If you’ve saved enough to tide you over --- well just as always, you can “retire” whenever you can afford to. We also, however, need to strengthen our age discrimination laws and enforcement if we want people to work longer. Age discrimination is very hard to prove now and in the name of saving money companies routinely lay off the highest paid people. Who are often the oldest people.

We need to change completely how we pay for medical procedures and drugs under Medicare. Right now the government pays per item. Which encourages doctors who don’t think Medicare pays them enough to do every unnecessary test and procedure they can think of. Even during routine physicals. And patients are often prescribed expensive drugs because it’s quicker and easier than counseling them to change the behavior or lifestyle that’s causing the problem. Moreover we must, must, MUST get all medical records into digital form. Online so any doctor can see any patient’s total history. Because Medicare allows patients to choose their doctors and see as many as they wish, costs are often ratcheted up when someone goes from doctor to doctor until she gets the drug or procedure she wants. Regardless of necessity.

I’m no economist but logic suggests that just raising the age to get pensions and Medicare coverage - as well as reforming the way Medicare is structured - would probably keep the system solvent through at least another generation’s retirement. If not beyond.

If we’re going to ask or require Americans to finance more of their own retirement -- we also need to change the way money flows through the stock, options, and bond markets. High frequency and general electronic trading in huge blocks has made it very difficult for the small, retail investor - no matter how smart -- to do well in the market. You have to be on it every minute and still the block traders will set up their servers right next to those of the NYSE (for example) where their computer-programmed flash trades will overwhelm any individual trade you might try to make. Which leaves average Americans with just one choice beyond low-paying CD’s: put all your money in the hands of big fund managers. Many of them the same people who bought into the derivatives bubble which caused the financial crisis. Thank you – but no.

So if this crop of legislators and leaders and government agency managers won’t drop the posturing -- let’s have a giant recall election (kind of like a country-wide tag sale) and replace them all with pragmatists. Who will look at what DOES work and what CAN work and forget about which party comes up with the idea.

In other words – they’ll get real.