So much in the modern economy depends on expectations of the public -- it's like an uncontrollable wave: if enough people fear a depression, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as the cumulative weight of their individual financial decisions causes a cascade effect. There's really no controlling these waves -- there is, in fact, *nobody in charge*. They're memes... ideas and beliefs which develop a life of their own and live in a meta-environment of public conversation. They're intangible, you can't grasp them with both hands and shake them into a cooperative mood! :) A government that was very smart and very determined would use "viral methods" to manipulate the public conversation, as a way to try to direct it somewhat. This is basically propaganda, but not the clumsy old Tokyo Rose or public-service-announcement crap: it needs to be very sophisticated, targeted, credible. Find the voices with the most influence over public opinion, and manipulate their view of things in subtle ways so that they start saying what you want them to say -- without their knowledge! That's "steering the meme". I think it's the only thing that has a chance of making one of these waves change direction.

Keep the Feds outta the economy?! ;-)

In my view, the system we have now must crash. It's cyclical. As long as we have a system that is driven by debt rather than true consumption with real money, it is bound to eventually spiral out of control. Let it go -- it's going anyway and taking all of us with it, in one way or another. Bailouts and such are only going to slow the painful process. I would go as far to say that it would be better that we all immediately stop paying our debts, suffer the consequences now, and crash the system completely. Then we must rebuild a new economic system using the Austrian School of Economics. Hard currency, with collateralized debt only. Initiate duties on foreign products -- the way it once was -- and lessen the tax burden on all citizens by instituting reasonable corporate taxation. Get rid of the Federal Reserve Banking System. Retool America for new technologies and become energy self-sufficient. These are just a few things that need to be done to avoid catastrophes like 1929 and the coming disaster. Or we can limp along and crash anyway only to rebuild under the same economic system after a ten year recovery and/or pump our false economy with war. Then we will revive this system of spiraling credit only to crash again within 60 to 90 years. In my opinion, here is what's happening now: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/4910823 I say trash this system and rebuild with a new economic philosophy. Real money. Real savings. True ownership. Real wealth. Instead of heavily mortgaged homes and businesses that can fall like a house of cards at the slightest economic tremor. Right now we are in a situation where, after the failure of the financial institutions and consumer banks that have extended the credit, the consumer is not only expected to pay off loans to those banks, but to finance the bailout of those very same institutions through future taxation. WTF is that?

Keep the government out of business...let poor business models fail and good businesses succeed.

Which is why FDR said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." With buyers waiting to see when the economy bottoms out, and bad news , everyone has decided to stay home. Production and services have slowed. I dont know what happened to this 700 billion, to encourage lending, and buying up bad properties. However, our economy has depended on us being a ThrowAway society, making it cheaper to mass produce items than keep or repair them. I dont see how that many cars can be sold a year, i dont know that many ppl who buy a new car that often. Now I heard the term "credit card bailout". Will this encourage us to get out from under the burden and start saving, or to charge them up again? I do believe, like Rockefeller said, Recessions come and go, and prosperity will return. I left my 401k alone, and bought another property.