A Democratic Admin will have to fix the financial markets.

The repugs have given it a face lift since the Enron/Worldcom bankruptcies. Since then it has emerged that several big name banks new well in advance (sound familiar?) about the trouble these companies were actually in - even as they continued to actively helped sell debt for them. And let their wealthier clientele engage in after hour skims. Our current free market system with its focus on immediate investor returns is gradually ruining companies like Boeing - a business where long term big risks is the name of the game. Their 7E7 not much of an evolutionary plane by their historical standard. High tech companies like Sun, SGI and AMD are not able to acquire the financing they need for major micro processer development. By comparison Dell, a relatively low tech operation is rolling in cash. Wall Street analysts don't know how to value technolgy companies.

Democrats will need to reform the markets as well as come up with new and creative ways to attract long term investment capital to key industries. I think Kerry should advocate creation of a public compay modeled after Fanny Mae that will do fibre-optic rollout throughout the country. Social Security would be the majority owner with telco's and other investers would bid for the rest. Eminent domain laws would acquire existing infrastructure at value. People would also pay for service with a congressionally mandated sliding scale fee. This would eventually generate huge amounts of money. Jobs would be generated and the internet would achieve what is clearly its manifest destiny of virtually unlimited bandwidth for everyone. There was no internet bubble you know, it was just: greedy invester, meet crooked dealer and some bigtime IPO scams. The miserable performance of the AOL TimeWarner buyout was a big laugh. I mean how dumb can you get. Movie meet modem. Jeez guys give me a break.

At the disgression of the board of directors, the federally backed public company would invest, on the advice of experts, in strategic technologies with long term potential. this could bring exponential ROI with what would actually be minimal risks.

The repugs are ready to steal the bandwidth issue away from democrats. I heard bush talking about it already in AZ. The democrats are still in some WiFi miracle mode that to a very large extent is pie-in-the-sky.

Comment?

personally, i think the federal government should spearhead a MAJOR overhaul of the domestic infrastructure. most notably, high-speed rail (maglev?) should be put on the, uh, fast track.

even if the oil will flow freely for another 40 years, we need to push research and planning NOW.

if there's a real demand for something that actually helps build something in this country, the financial markets will behave much better.

Not available everywhere, of course.

I keep thinking that energy independence would be a good approach, though. Think what it would feel like to NOT have to import all that oil!

What do you think? It could support all kinds of hightech projects when it reaches a stage of maturity. Americans are being ripped off by bio-tech and pharmaceutical companies that take advantage of public investment in projects like human genome and take us for a ride with patents on drugs! We also need a silver bullet for the so-called baby-boomer problem in SS. I payed in all my life and don't want the repugs to get away with ripping me off. I sent the proposal to Paul Krugman at NYT and he'll know if its BS.

You mention SS - that means you want lots of well paying jobs at every level, right? So, how would an energy program create that?

Suppose that instead of tax cuts for CEO's we had tax credits for solar panels, insulation, double glazed windows and so forth. We also eliminate tax benefits for SUV's and add them for energy efficient cars. Maybe we do away with the * tax cuts and fund a little more public transportation.

Someone has to make all of that "stuff". People have to install it! And they have to build the cars, drive the electric busses, and so forth.

Researchers work to come up with new ideas - and those generate more business. I don't know what they are; but there's some bright young person who has some great ideas out there right now! All they need is that little spark of encouragement.

The American people are creative, optimistic, hard working - what we need is a leader with the vision to bring forth all that is best in us! And a grand vision - one that's truly good for everyone - isn't a bad place to start.

I agree with you about an energy program - a real one - not the drill ANWR supply side plan of the bushits.

Maybe its something you have to mull over for awhile to suss. We are at a critical juncture right now in terms of communication infrastructure. Cable companies are making more money on ISP service and consequently resisting roll-out of HDTV - especially must carries - as their limited bandwidth is more profitable carrying IP. There's not yet a great deal of existing infrastructure in terms of fibre wired homes. This is a big new utility type of roll-out that will one day replace both twisted-pair and coax which are obsolete as soon as a fibre connection is made. SS can get in on the ground floor. I don't in anyway believe that current bandwidth is even in the ballpark in terms of whats needed. Cable modem is generally considered the fastest of the current broadband offerings and its a paltry 3 Mbit/second. DSL is 1.5 or so. On the other hand in the 90's companies like Global Crossing was investing millions of dollars in fibre backbone that is now mostly idle - not to mention sold off to Taiwanese companies. We have have the opportunity to be part owners, by virtue of SS's majority stake in the hugest utility that the world will have ever seen. We would just be saying that we will by law own this utility in order to accelerate rollout and to save SS from financial collapse. We've been paying into SS and the government has for years spent the money to cover general budget short falls.

In the scenario envisioned we would *own* something that would be a money maker into the foreseeable future. It hinges on the unique characteristic of fibre that its the very fastest media and should be "enough for everyone' (as Bill Gates famously said about 640k of memory). It's not like mass transit that doesn't make a dime until the turnstyles start to turn. A publicly owned fibre system would make money from the time the first home is wired. We'd eventually be sitting on a nest egg of cash that could be used judiciously to support mag-lev systems. Mega-corporations are failing us. Time to try something else.

Hell it's going to be exciting again when the dems are back! I see these expensive looking houses with red tile roofs on them in desert climes like Phx -that while they may provide insulation and have good fire resistance - but solar panels would relieve the grid at the most critical time - the middle of the day. I've long felt that all levels of government are failing miserably to promote this kind of technology. More power plants are seen as the only solution. New homes should be required to have fibre laid to the street even if theirs no current connectivity for it. The cost is trivial compared with retrofit. Technology was exciting while Clinton/Gore were in and it would be great if Kerry could be seen as the man with the plan. Gotta have at least one concrete, actionable plan to get people enthused. I high speed rail system in CA's central valley is like rain on the plain in Spain. Its flat as a pancake and a straight shot to Sacramento. Some tunneling north of LA but it could be done. I loved Clinton's vision of synergistic merging of enviromental protection and technological advancement. It's a brilliant vision that got shit-canned by the bushits - along with all the Al Queda warnings. I miss the can do attitude.