Green the Bailout

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Green the Bailout
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: September 27, 2008

Many things make me weep about the current economic crisis, but none more than this brief economic history: In the 19th century, America had a railroad boom, bubble and bust. Some people made money; many lost money. But even when that bubble burst, it left America with an infrastructure of railroads that made transcontinental travel and shipping dramatically easier and cheaper.

The late 20th century saw an Internet boom, bubble and bust. Some people made money; many people lost money, but that dot-com bubble left us with an Internet highway system that helped Microsoft, I.B.M. and Google to spearhead the I.T. revolution.

The early 21st century saw a boom, bubble and now a bust around financial services. But I fear all it will leave behind are a bunch of empty Florida condos that never should have been built, used private jets that the wealthy can no longer afford and dead derivative contracts that no one can understand.

Worse, we borrowed the money for this bubble from China, and now we have to pay it back — with interest and without any lasting benefit....

***

(W)e don’t just need a bailout. We need a buildup. We need to get back to making stuff, based on real engineering not just financial engineering. We need to get back to a world where people are able to realize the American Dream — a house with a yard — because they have built something with their hands, not because they got a “liar loan” from an underregulated bank with no money down and nothing to pay for two years. The American Dream is an aspiration, not an entitlement....

***

(W)hen this bailout is over, we need the next president — this one is wasted — to launch an E.T., energy technology, revolution with the same urgency as this bailout. Otherwise, all we will have done is bought ourselves a respite, but not a future. The exciting thing about the energy technology revolution is that it spans the whole economy — from green-collar construction jobs to high-tech solar panel designing jobs. It could lift so many boats....

(L)et’s commit right now that any bailout profits will be invested in infrastructure — smart transmission grids or mass transit — for a green revolution. Let’s “green the bailout,”...and help ensure that the American Dream doesn’t ever shrink back to just that — a dream.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/opinion/28friedman.html?hp

[SHRED]

1. Isn't Friedman a Globalist? "Flat Earth" trade advocate?

Doesn't he hold some of the blame?

Or am I confusing him with someone else?

---

[Indiana_Dem]

3. I believe you're right but some of his thinking is ok.

I like his idea to invest in turning over to an energy-saving economy. It will provide many new jobs that shouldn't leave America and would help the environment and our energy crisis.

[uberllama42]

4. I couldn't get through "The World is Flat"

I didn't get far enough to figure out whether he was advocating globalization, or just talking about it. He's usually good on environmental issues, though.

[Indiana_Dem]

2. Exactly! This is exactly what I want! nt

[MasonJar]

5. He was a big advocate of the Iraq War until Bushista mangled it.

Look how much that has cost us!