LXer: Ubuntu chief decries interest rate cut

LXer · 01-25-2008, 09:00 AM

Published at LXer:

Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu version of Linux, called Tuesday's interest-rate cut the "most extraordinary failure of economic leadership in recent years."

Read More...

rickh · 01-25-2008, 09:20 AM

I'm not a big fan of Mark Shuttleworth generally speaking, but obviously, as a successful international businessman, he understands the real issues. The only real cure for the economic crisis that I have seen presented in the current US election season goes like this:

Quote:

1. Tax Reform: Reduce the tax burden and eliminate taxes that punish investment and savings, including job-killing corporate taxes.

2. Spending Reform: Eliminate wasteful spending. Reduce overseas commitments. Freeze all non-defense, non-entitlement spending at current levels.

3. Monetary Policy Reform: Expand openness with the Federal Reserve and require the Fed to televise its meetings. Return value to our money.

4. Regulatory Reform: Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley regulations that push companies to seek capital outside of US markets. Stop restricting community banks from fostering local economic growth.

If you care enough to investigate, it won't take you very long to discover whose plan that is.

Hangdog42 · 01-25-2008, 12:05 PM

Quote:

1. Tax Reform: Reduce the tax burden and eliminate taxes that punish investment and savings, including job-killing corporate taxes.

Gets proposed over and over and nothing ever happens. The tax code is a mess because Congress likes to give away tax goodies.

Quote:

2. Spending Reform: Eliminate wasteful spending. Reduce overseas commitments. Freeze all non-defense, non-entitlement spending at current levels.

Lets see, overseas aid amounts to less than 1% of the US budget, and non-defense, non-entitlement is less than 20%. Defense, entitlement and interest financing are the budget problems, not the exceptions.

Quote:

. Monetary Policy Reform: Expand openness with the Federal Reserve and require the Fed to televise its meetings. Return value to our money.

I keep hearing people say this, and I still have no idea what putting the Fed on television will do except put the sleeping pill industry out of business.

Quote:

4. Regulatory Reform: Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley regulations that push companies to seek capital outside of US markets. Stop restricting community banks from fostering local economic growth.

I agree that SOX has gone some too far, but it does put some serious transparency requirements on companies that are needed. It does prevent the ENRON style CEO excuse of "I didn't know what was going on" from happening. I would seriously hate to lose all of that.

rickh · 01-25-2008, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Gets proposed over and over and nothing ever happens. The tax code is a mess because Congress likes to give away tax goodies.

My man means it. He wants to completely eradicate the Federal Income Tax, and replace it with ... nothing.

Quote:

Defense, entitlement and interest financing are the budget problems,...

Why not just bring all 700,000 troops in 130 countries home. That would save some serious money.

Quote:

I still have no idea what putting the Fed on television will do except put the sleeping pill industry out of business.

Since about the only TV I watch is C-Span, I suspect that what puts you to sleep is different than some other people. Fed deliberations on live TV would be a BIG attention getter.

Quote:

I agree that SOX has gone some too far...

In Congress only 3 people voted against it. My man was one.

Hangdog42 · 01-26-2008, 07:15 AM

Quote:

My man means it. He wants to completely eradicate the Federal Income Tax, and replace it with ... nothing.

Honest, I mean no offense, but pigs will fly first. I know, people absolutely HATE income tax, but once they start understanding the consequences of completely eliminating it, a sizable majority usually decide that maybe they aren't so bad after all.

Quote:

Why not just bring all 700,000 troops in 130 countries home. That would save some serious money.

That floats my boat. I see absolutely no reason why we have troops anywhere in the world besides the US. I DON'T want my country acting as the world's policeman. There is absolutely, positively no benefit to us, and there is a VERY significant downside.

Quote:

Since about the only TV I watch is C-Span, I suspect that what puts you to sleep is different than some other people. Fed deliberations on live TV would be a BIG attention getter.

I stated it badly the first time around, so I'll try again..... Putting the Fed on the TV will have no impact whatsoever on anything. The Fed is already reasonably transparent, and putting the deliberations on TV will only lead to nonsense ("Look, Bernake just scratched his left buttock, that means an interest rate rise is definitely coming!").

Quote:

In Congress only 3 people voted against it. My man was one.

Bully for your man. Maybe only three people voted against it because a significant portion of SOX is actually a decent idea. Do you really want spectacles like Enron to become the norm in US business? Believe me, if all the imperial CEOs out there think they could get away with that kind of behavior, they would absolutely give it a go. SOX needs to be tuned, not eliminated.