The Entrepreneur's Opinion

[Ursa Majoris]

Read this in the local paper, originally in the NYT. I found it very interesting though obviously light on detail. Good discussion material.

 

President Obama needs to go big tonight when he gives his address on jobs to a joint meeting of Congress.

 

Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman of the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, may have suggestions, but considering that Fortune 100 companies have killed 2.9 million jobs in America during the past decade while adding 2.4 million abroad, that may not be the best input.

 

I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm creating jobs.

 

Here are eight suggestions:

 

1. Significantly reduce Sarbanes-Oxley regulations for public companies with revenues of less than $500 million. My company went public last year and spends $3 million to $4 million a year in additional insurance, accounting and legal costs stemming from compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley financial reporting.

 

2. Reinstate Glass-Steagall and eliminate Dodd-Frank. Get commercial banks back to being banks, and get investment banks back to raising capital and trading. Reinstating Glass-Steagall would force the "too big to fail" banks to divest assets, something that Dodd-Frank does not address.

 

3. Raise rates on short-term capital gains and lower rates on long-term capital gains. Hedge funds and private-equity investors should not be rewarded for short-term capital gains that produce enormous market volatility. Raise the short-term capital-gains rate to 35 percent, and lower the long-term rate, longer than one year, to 10 percent.

 

4. Provide companies with the confidence that, if they invest in the United States, they aren't going to face increased wage and benefit costs. Businesses will not invest if they don't know the actual cost they will bear to comply with health-care, consumer-protection, banking and environmental regulations. The president has created a regulatory landscape that scares investors and is making chief executives hoard cash.

 

5. Require any mortgage originator who sells a mortgage to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to take a first-loss position, meaning that, if the loan goes bad, the originator, not Fannie or Freddie, is responsible for the first 5 percent lost, and then shares losses with Fannie or Freddie up to 20 percent.

 

6. Means-test Social Security. Many wealthy Americans do not need benefits. Give them a tax deduction to the value of their estate for their accumulated contributions.

 

7. Make serious cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. The health care bill sent the message that we will insure every American and cover every disease. We cannot afford that type of health care. Americans need to take responsibility for their health and realize that life choices -- smoking, overeating, etc. -- may produce health conditions that are not covered.

 

8. Identify 100 major infrastructure projects that will put this country ahead of our competition and put people to work building high-speed trains, highways, water pipelines, irrigation canals and alternative-energy sources. Borrow as much money as the government possibly can to fund this investment. At 2 percent interest, it's a good investment.

 

* * *

 

William M. Walker is the chief executive of Walker & Dunlop, a Bethesda, Md.-based commercial-real-estate financing company. He wrote this article for the New York Times.

[Perchoutofwater]

5 and 8 are the only ones I have some misgivings about. With regard to 5, just get rid of Fannie and Freddie. Regarding 8, while it might provide some stimulus, if done correctly, but who chooses who wins and who loses?

[Jimmy Neutron]

Pretty good stuff - especially 3, 5 & 6.

[CowboyGal2011]

Identify 100 major infrastructure projects that will put this country ahead of our competition and put people to work building high-speed trains,

 

I don't think this will work, but I would be willing to be convinced otherwise. Go Cowboys!