Recessions Suck

The good part of being in a recession is that when everybody is having a hard time, the feeling of individual failure is diminished.

Yes, I really had to reach for that one.

Being a small business owner, I'm not too big to fail. In fact, it appears that I'm just about the perfect size. Nobody has offered me a bailout yet. But I'm keeping my cell phone in my pocket just in case.

President Bush supposedly once said that the problem with the French was that they didn't have a word for Entrepreneur. I'm not sure if that's true, but as an entrepreneur I can tell you that America's professed love for us small business types is little more than a summer fling. Where's the love now that times are hard? I'm not feeling it.

I got to lay off eight people yesterday. That was pretty miserable for all of us. Where is our bailout? How about a Small Business Administration emergency loan program? Nada, zip, zero.

What this country really needs is a consumer based bail out.

A CONSUMER BASED BAILOUT!!!

Let everybody refinance their house for what they owe on it with a new 30 year fixed at 6%. No qualifying, no appraisals, no credit scores. This will allow anyone who can beg, borrow or steal their monthly payment to keep their house. And most people will find a way.

The second piece of this ingenious plan is to let everybody consolidate all of their non-mortgage debt into a big consolidation loan for 10 years at 10%. Again, no qualifying!

The government can insure the loans and mortgages and charge a fee for the insurance that the consumer pays. This is already happening somewhat with FHA refinances, but not enough. We need to let everybody refinance. It will stabilize housing prices as well as credit card issuing banks.

And being who we are, we'll all go out and start spending like drunken sailors again, saving capitalism for another day.

Write your congressman today!!