A year from now... by gimleteye

Like you, I've been reading the re-caps of 2008. There is an understandable drift in the air. On Miami Beach, the new fancy-schmancy Mondrian is milking this week's clients: the desperation underlying the economic snatching and grabbing of wealthy vacationers at Miami's most hyped new hotel does not bode well for the tourism part of the economy next year.

In The Miami Herald, Myriam Marquez writes that there must be some middle ground between discredited faith in "laissez-faire economics" and the heavy hand of government. "Somewhere between the zeal of free markets and capitalism's abuses lies the answer for government." She doesn't pursue the issue further but should have. Is there any difference between the zeal and abuse of free markets: a legitimate question since an asset bubble in housing destroyed the US financial system.

For certain, the housing sector will not pull us from this deep recession. Yet the forces of the housing sector-- who account for much of the Herald's advertising base-- still dominate our legislatures. They are still proposing and passing measures that "protect" democracy from people. (Read our series on the Wades and volunteerism, below.)

An economy that doesn't make anything, can't work: but pumping up housing through subsidies and fiscal incentives is just another form of snatch and grab. We are a nation of small businesspeople and small entrepreneurs again. The sooner our politics orient around that reality based in the needs of a new energy economy, the better. Let's put solar panels up on every house and rooftop, windpower wherever it can work, and solve the debt and insurance issues up front. Fast. We also need a massive jobs project like the 1930's Conservation Corps. But don't expect the nation's big electric utilities to lead the way either. And pray that common sense will prevail before it is imposed through greater hardships than this tough year.