How to Fix the Economy

How do we solve inflation, the housing crisis and other aspects of our broken economy? Libraries could be filled with the written works of those trying to solve this problem. Could we fix the economy with just four simple words?

Four words to fix the economy. There's no shortage of ideas floating around--"Get Rid of Taxes," "Government Assistance for Everyone," "Just Give It Time"? 

I'm sure we could come up with a four-word slogan to promote just about any so-called fix for today's economic problems. However, none of the slogans I've just mentioned, and none of the policies being pushed by politicians around the globe address the root cause of every economic crisis. How do we know that? Because economic crisis is nothing new. Multiple variations of all kinds of economic theories have been tried over time, and yet, we have not found a way to prevent economic challenges.

In 17th century Holland we find the first modern example of an economic bubble. It occurred when tulip bulbs began trading as stock market item, creating a craze leading to excessively inflated prices which could not be sustained. Once confidence in tulip bulbs as an investment item collapsed, the market collapsed, destroying personal fortunes and severely damaging the Dutch economy. More recent crises include Black Tuesday and the Great Depression, the dotCom bubble of the 1990s, the recent housing and sovereign debt crises, and now many nations are fighting a delicate battle with inflation as prices soar faster than wages can keep up. All could have been avoided with a simple four-word fix: "Don't lend to Greeks?" That's not it either. Not even close. 

Let's just take the housing crisis of 2008, often referred to as the "Subprime mortgage crisis." What went wrong? With low interest rates, and cheap credit readily available, many people bought homes that were simply more expensive than they could afford. Banks encouraged this, as even if the homeowner would never be able to pay off the loan, the bank would offload it to another entity before that could become an issue. That's right, the banks didn't care if the buyer would ever be able to pay off the mortgage—because by the time they defaulted, the bank would have sold their end of the mortgage (and thus passed along all the risk) to someone else. The government enabled it all because it resulted in happy voters and a buzzing economy…until, it didn't.  

Why do people buy houses they cannot afford? Why do banks lend money to people they know won't be able to pay it back? Why do people gamble their money on get rich quick schemes or invest in markets they don't understand? It all boils down to greed. Personal greed, corporate greed, societal greed. The economy has never reached an efficient, self-sustaining balance point because collectively and individually, more often than not, we want more.

You could describe a permanent economic fix in four words: "Collectively, Individually, overcome greed."  or simplified as "Get rid of GREED." Now we're on to something.

Some claim that removing greed from society would extinguish entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and work ethic. This is false. We must not confuse the desires of true success and productivity with the pitfalls of greed. 

There is nothing wrong with hard work. Greed is what causes one to attempt to seize wealth, power, fame, position or possessions without putting in the proper work. 

Purchasing more house than one can afford, taking advantage of the elderly with a Ponzi scheme, bending the rules to get what you want or neglecting and failing to provide for your family in order to increase your own bank account. All have the same root and all have detrimental effects that go well beyond our economy. The dire results when this trait of human nature go unchecked are described in our special report: "Greed: a Global Disease." This can be ordered free of charge by using the link in the description. 

This solution to our economic crisis is finding a solution to this global disease: greed. The solution is not new. It has been around for thousands of years. However, few have had the humility, and the perseverance to live the solution. 

This solution to "get rid of greed" was worded a little differently when first put forward. Still four simple words: "You Shall Not Covet."