The 2nd Great Depression :  2008 - ???? It's here and it's getting worse.  The Stimulus Package just isn't going to work. It's too small and pointed in the wrong direction. But this will work: JOBS              The government (federal + state + local) pays 49% of the salary of any new employee removed from the unemployment rolls. Let's see, 12 million new jobs at $2,500 a month equals $30 billion a month. The $ 800B package can pay that for years.  But wait, there’s no unemployment payments, plus new payroll taxes, plus paid healthcare (usually), and the economic multiplier effect.  This can be done for FREE! SPEND           Obama asks, begs, cajoles, and encourages people to buy: new cars, new appliances, new clothes, new toys, and new vacations. Businesses are encouraged to expand their capabilities now for the coming economic recovery. Hire people.  Manufacture. Build inventory. The only way out of this mess is for everyone to BUY! Buy goods, buy services.  The rest of the developed world also.  BANKS           The bad ones got us into this mess. Let them fail, just like Lehman Brothers. Let the good ones takeover what's left. And the $50 million a year executives who did it go directly to jail, and do not pass go. SEC                Where the hell were they? Weren't they supposed to ensure the “secure” in securities?  They were supposed to regulate CDSs, derivatives, mortgage-backed securities (i.e. sub-prime loans)?  It didn't happen.  Because the SEC is a revolving door of regulators and players. Fire the top three management levels of this inept and incompetent bureaucracy.