Pay Cap and Obama Stimulus Package

My recommendation is to cap TARP at $1.2 million instead. Secondly, I would set up a repayment schedule for all TARP recipients along with metrics each company must meet within a period of time, not unlike the metrics applied to EU States wishing to enter the Euro Common Currency, where companies must meet these metrics within a period of time of face a wind up of their operations, NOT additional TARP money!

Finally, I would like to stress my view that it is way to early to create any large "stimulus package" per se, but instead we should be focusing on immediate government spending on areas of our nation that have been neglected for far to long (well lets say areas left to private companies to run / manage / profit from where they had no incentive to improve or make better their business infrastructure). Key areas are:

1) Passenger rail transportation. It is absolutely essential we invest rail infrastructure allowing metro systems, above ground tram / trolley systems to be developed and built and that we re-ignite old passenger rights of way around the nation to allow us today to begin connecting all of the suburban cum-urban areas within regions that have grown so fast (connecting Annapolis, MD with Baltimore and Washington, DC by rail is an example in my region) into a regional rail infrastructure.

2) Energy distribution infrastructure. The time has come to step in and invest in the infrastructure necessary to get energy form natural sources to the urban areas that need it most. This requires investing in high tech distribution technology so that solar fields in the dessert and wind farms in the plains, mountain and coastal shores can be efficiently transported.

3) Renewable energy creation. Increasing investment in solar farms, wind farms, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants, geothermal (for industrial and individual use), and Ocean Current Generation technologies where the investment yields the best results.

4) Telecommunications / Internet infrastructure and access. It is pathetic the US is so far behind on the basic utility of Internet Access when we created the darn thing. The old monopoly that ran our telecommunications infrastructure was de-monopolized nearly 30 years ago and since then our telecommunications infrastructure has been like the "wild west" with a regulatory structure that remained stuck in the monopoly mindset with 5 regulated monopolies for telephone and regional regulated monopolies for cable for way to long. We have both stifling unofficial monopolies still running our local telecommunications infrastructure and cable systems nationwide with the only area of early competition, Long Distance, being virtually not an industry any longer. This must change and be fixed by vast regularity overhaul and direct investment in our infrastructure.

5) Residential housing construction regulation overhaul. This is a very hot issue with me. I travel the world to other developed countries and find every time how far behind our construction methods and technologies lag these countries. Building residential housing in the US is to build using the lowest common denominator available. With single family units we have still have stick built box houses wrapped in plastic with modest insulation, plastic siding, composite wood products built with toxic epoxies, plumbing and plumbing fixtures based on early 20 century design and installation, HVAC systems that are completely wasteful and inefficient applying again mid 20th century "technology", water heating and distribution on completely outdated inefficient models, overall design construction methods that take no account of environmental considerations and wasteful and inefficient appliances. There is little to nothing about an American built single-family house to brag about.

In commercial housing we are applying often the same technology to a large-scale multi-unit housing with the same disastrous results. In addition, I have watched American Cities be "revitalized" over the past 15 years with virtual cities being built within urban areas and no consideration taken in commercial multi-unit housing even being taken for providing playgrounds for children once all the single Americans who have moved in the cities over the last few years decide to have children. So it is not only construction regulation but design considerations we must be looking at.

6) We need to seriously look at creating national development standards. With so many of the "urban" areas built outside of our major cities and the "mini-urban" areas built in redevelopment zones in our cities, in nearly every example I have witnessed, little or no attention is being paid to alternative transportation options. To find a simple bike rack is a challenge in most places let alone bike lanes built into sidewalks and redeveloped streetscapes. Walking options are often completely overlooked with the famous "American Sidewalk to Nowhere" dominating all development where sidewalks may be installed but they often do not lead to pedestrian friendly intersections, urban shopping districts or walkways. They are basically useless sidewalks.

In 5 and 6 above, what is often overlooked is that higher standards of development and construction lead to higher investment in technology and standard of living. It is no mistake that these technologies exist in other developed nations and their standard of living in many of these country far exceeds that of America. When I hear arguments about "increased cost" of smarter development and construction I almost NEVER hear of the positive sides of their argument, mostly because of the ignorance of most Americans to the existence of these technologies and infrastructures. In addition, while the housing "boom" was going on in the US for over a decade, not once did I see the implementation of greater standards and technology accompany the doubling and often tripling of house prices over the
period. Enough said.

More Later...