The Bailout and Support for Renewable Energy

Submitted by Michael Moynihan on 10/3/08

New York City--It is better than not that the bailout package passed and is now law. However, as U.S. Sen. Barack Obama noted in his statement about its passage, this is no time for rejoicing. Rather it is a time to get serious about addressing the issues that caused the crisis in the first place--lack of regulation, excessive debt and, above all, the failure of the underlying U.S. economy to deliver real improvement in living standards for Americans--and what we must do to put it behind us.

It was stagnant wages and falling living standards for the middle class over the last eight years, as much as anything else, that drove Americans to try to compensate with their own version of structured finance in the form of questionable mortgages and home equity loans on their homes. And more generally, it was a preoccupation with financial engineering over real engineering that drove our society, especially our financial sector, to mortgage itself to the hilt.

Going forward, America must first stimulate the economy by investing in clean infrastructure. Measures that will put money on the street and also address our long-term energy challenges include a national clean infrastructure bank, a full court press to modernize our electricity grid, aid to states and localities for clean mass transportation and measures to retire our old energy efficient plant and replace it with energy efficient buildings.

We must also provide meaningful relief for homeowners to keep people in their homes by replacing unsustainable, non-performing loans with sustainable ones as suggested by Alan Blinder, Hillary Clinton and others. Wall Street has gotten its bailout. How about the American people?

Finally, America must move forward to accelerate the development of a full-fledged 21st century economy. We must invest in our people, our ingenuity and our future through investments in education, clean infrastructure and the new clean energy technologies likely to power prosperity in the coming century.

There was one unambiguous bright spot in the legislation passed today. Congress extended the Investment Tax Credit for solar energy which NDN has been arguing is vital to building a clean energy future, for eight years. With a credit in place that will now span the period that solar needs, on its current cost path, to fall below the cost of fossil fuels, solar energy is likely to become an increasingly part of our energy future. The production tax credit for wind, equally important, was extended by the bill for one year.

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Comments

Saving is a good deed

Submitted by Francesca W on 3/21/09.

Lots of predicaments in the country that need to resolve. i know government are having trouble with this. this federal tax credit for residential energy is one of the most controversial issues around the country. The credit was further enhanced in February 2009 by The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. I'm not against the bail out, infact, my primary hope is to save the the falling economy, since bailing out economy is like saving people out from this economic predicament. Conversely, Charity and generosity have been considered among the most desirable virtues since ancient times. The tradition of good deeds is one tradition that should be kept around. Good deeds are said to be their own reward. Other people say that good deeds don’t go unpunished. Regardless, there have been some high profile, and doubtless many that have gone unsung, acts of charity and kindness during this recession. In one instance, after Leonard Abbess Jr. sold his bank for $60 million, he divided the purchase price among his employees. He was singled out by President Obama for his generosity.

Bailing out

Submitted by PaydayLoanAdvocate (not verified) on 10/16/08.

Many Americans tuned in to watch the most recent
“town hall-style” debate between presidential
candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. My
assumptions about politicians did not change much. No matter
how direct a question is, politicians of any party cannot give
a genuine or spontaneous answer. Instead, we are given pre-written responses
that typically don’t answer the question we’re really asking. The reviews of
the debate seem to be the same: BORING! The New York
Times explained that the debate was “90
minutes of forced cordiality,” and I can’t say I disagree. And the Boston
Globe depicted the debate as “mercifully free” of
personal attacks. Consequently, the debate was also free of
much of the tension that grabs TV viewers’ attention. McCain
continued to toot his own horn: he restated the importance of his experience,
his “stay the course” stance on the war in Iraq, and his oil
drilling policies. Obama proceeded to criticize the Republican
economic policies that he believes are to blame for the economic
recession. Even after the debate, I think
most Americans still have no concept of how the candidates would actually act
in the face of a pending economic catastrophe. American needs
a sound economic proposal. Obama’s stance on
“predatory lending” – effectively sanctioning payday
advance lenders – is not a sensible solution to the real economic
problems we face.