They say the banks are flush with cash, probably better capitalized than they've ever been. So I'd like to throw some questions out since I don't feel quite competent to comment on monetary policy.

I do have a bias: I don't have too much sympathy for banks, or for much of Wall Street, or the many financial players who find a way to profit off of thin air. It particularly bothered my father that so many of these are Jews, not that it has anything to do with this.

I do acknowledge that our economic system owes a lot to the ability to efficiently place capital in the hands of those who can put it to use to advance our economy, and that a strong economy, properly shepherded, can be of great benefit to all of our society.

I guess there's a bit of “I want them to hurt too” here. I know it's not nice, and I'm open to discussion on the subject, but I somehow don't see this hurting the banking and finance sectors like it's going to hurt most of us.

So here are a few more questions:

Why aren't the banks being pushed/required to forego interest?

The Fed has made money just about free to the banks, but they still charge us. The moves towards expanded credit and forbearance seem to me like they will only cause consumers to have to pay more interest: they will likely borrow to make it over this period, and will have fewer resources as they are not working. People will owe more, and it will take longer to repay. Why should the banking sector profit off of this?

Are our corporations shepherded so that we all benefit, or should they be?

What makes me say our corporations? Should we see them this way?

For instance, just to pull a title, CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978: Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time. It seems that certain people always “recover” better than others. I assume we allow the formation of corporations because we believe the existence of commercial enterprise ultimately inures to all of our benefits. Should or can the benefit be directed?

Also, it seems “stimulus” moves through the banks, but the way it moves its way down to the working stiff I don't necessarily get. And I don't know how you would regulate it so that the money stimulates where it should, but there seems to me there's got to be a way to do it better. Would it make sense to stimulate in such a way that the banks don't decide where it trickles down to?

Why do we skew markets to cause inefficient placement of capital and saddle the recipients with lifetimes of debt?

This is a student loan question. If we eliminate student loan programs, and we eliminate the restirtictions on discharge of student loans in bankruptcy, wouldn't we allow for efficient placement of capital in educating those who will add value to our future economy?

The Spending Side

On the spending side, I'm wondering if we have it so that people who don't work don't get paid, particularly people that we pay as taxpayers.

If the schools and government offices are closed, and folk aren't coming to work, or providing services, should they be paid?

The truth is I don't know if they are being paid or not. I suspect there are different results under different contracts. I also know it's not the worker's fault if he can't come to work right now, but it isn't ours either. I know we want to take care of our public servants. On the other hand, if we don't pay them for the work they didn't do, that might leave a little more for us, either to stimulate our local economies later, or to give us back in property tax reductions or other savings.

Last, this isn't the first black swan event we've seen in most of our lifetimes. In fact, these seem to come quite regularly, whether in the form of hurricanes or other extreme weather events, market shut-downs, or revolutionary or outright criminal activity.

Are we teaching people to live lives of abundance, to be financially savvy, to live within their means, and to save for just these kinds of events? Do people who pay on credit really get the true cost of the things they buy and how long they pay for them? Just for some perspective, a debt of $3000 at a 19% rate with a 3% payment minimum, can take 14 years to pay off with total payments over $6000.

And before you call me a heretic, I'm just thinking out loud here. I believe in our system, but that doesn't make it perfect. And if it's not taking care of enough of us, some intervention might be appropriate.