From Velvel on National Affairs:
The first requisite of economic recovery is emphatically not to give billions to the swine who brought disaster upon us and who currently simply hoard what they are given — hoard it against a rainy day when we are already at sea in a typhoon. Rather, the first requisite of economic recovery is to give money to those who will have to spend it because they are in need. They have lost their jobs, their homes, sometimes their cars, their food may be dwindling. They will spend the money, not hoard it, and their expenditures will help revival. And while you’re at it, by the way, lower all interest rates to some reasonable amount like 6 or 7 or 8 percent: lower the rates both of those who have lost or may lose their homes, and those who have managed to bear up under the burden; reinstall usury laws, which were knocked out defacto by the Supreme Court 30 years ago using the arguments of a brilliant lawyer who did evil (you might be surprised — or not — at who it was and later made clear to me that he was proud of it); and if banks and security holders scream and yell and shout the constitutional strictures about obligations of contracts, well, eff the greedy bastards. Congress and states, it has been ruled, can change the obligations of contracts when escaping societal disaster makes this desirable, and, anyway, even the greedy emmeffers will be financially better off if people can pay their mortgages than if the disaster continues.
mirabile dictu 