Other helpful policies would address the problems that are actually threatening our economy with prolonged stagnation. Trade policy is a good starting place. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act set off destructive “beggar thy neighbor” policies across the globe and helped plunge the U.S. and World economies into the Great Depression in 1929. Ratifying the Columbia Free Trade Agreement is therefore an important symbolic step that could help avoid a repeat of these self-destructive policies today. The agreement would benefit the U.S. economy, strengthen a key U.S. ally in South America, and send a positive signal to our other trading partners that the U.S. supports the international trading system that is responsible for so much global wealth and prosperity.

Often, banal technical details have large impacts. This is the case with the current banking crisis. While there is no panacea, accounting rules are creating problems for the banking system. One such rule is the need for banks to value their assets at current market prices, what is called mark-to-market. Changing this rule will not help truly insolvent banks. It can stop forcing otherwise healthy banks from needing taxpayer dollars to offset the temporary fire sale prices on assets that have depressed their value on paper only.

A third policy change that will help spur the economy is reforming the corporate tax laws – something President Obama has said he is ready to talk about. There is an old saying that if you hit a dog with a stick, you will not know where the dog is, but you will know where he is not. Taxes are a big stick, and the U.S. imposes the 2nd highest corporate tax rate amongst all developed countries – higher than Sweden; higher than Germany; even higher than France. This high tax rate discourages investment and job growth in the U.S. – activities we desperately need in the current environment. Adjusting our corporate tax laws and rates to be more in line with international standards would have a beneficial impact on our economy and help reduce the severity and duration of the current recession.

Other actions are necessary to weather our current economic storm. The Federal Reserve has a critical role to play; as does Congress as it considers growth depressing initiatives such as the proposed Cap and Trade regulations. What has not helped, nor will it help in the future, is massive government spending programs. Government spending programs do not increase economic growth, are not stimulative, and should not be done simply because we “need to do something”.

Worse, the resulting deficits are confiscating money from future generations through a Ponzi scheme where the first people in (us) pay ourselves with the money from the people who will enter later (our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren…). The only difference between this Ponzi scheme and Bernie Madoff’s is taxing power.