Ludwig the Fed Res is repeating the mistakes of the Great Depression.They are just printing more money and loaning it to the US Govt.The very people who created the problems are being bailed out while the ordinary person suffers and pays more.

It seems that Congress does not have the power to audit the Fed Res.It just pleases itself which is really criminal.I think that the all powerful pervasive Fed Res has corrupted Congress.

Yes Arjay, they are just propping up the current fatally flawed system.

Now, as recession bites, is the right time to reshape the whole economic approach…NOT after the US and world have recovered from this recession.

When things are booming along, there is little incentive to change the fundamentals of the system. So it’s got to happen now.

We’ve got a global recession. And we’ve got a new world’s most powerful leader. NOW is the right time to DUMP the absurd continuous-growth economic paradigm and head directly and urgently towards a paradigm of sustainability.

I’m sure the Federal Reserve has corrupted Congress. The power of big business and of the profit motive has certainly corrupted the whole governmental system in the US…and most if not all western democracies.

So yes I agree; if Obama could win control of the Fed Res, and stand up to the big corporations, he’d be on the right track. If he can’t, we may as well give up on the possibility of a sustainable US and world being achieved before we are shocked into it by an almighty crash event.

Arjay,

Many Australians seem to think that they live in America, why all this obsession with the US president? Take more interest in our politicians and policies, we have enough problems here.

Ludwig,

I understand your passion about sustainability. However, I think it's too much to expect one man, even if he is nominally the most powerful in the world, to fix them. The fact is that many who have power in this world, use it. From corporations through to individuals who all do what they want. That is outside of Obama's ability to do much about. Even if he were to slice off a head or two, another two just pop up in their place, just like the hydra. If he puts in new regulations, they just have unintended consequences somewhere else in the economy/society.

I'll play devil's advocate here. I think a big crash event is now the ONLY thing that will actually work to change behaviour. Once people realise that the old ways of doing things simply don't work, they'll change. The best way to get sustainability is to let the system fail, however rough it may be, and to force everyone to see it.

Rob, if Obama was to espouse sustainability as being the essential bottom line to all economic policy, I reckon the US and the world would very quickly come out in support.

Those big business bullies that just want growth at all costs would be very hard-pressed to counter such a message.

If Obama played it right, he could escape the stranglehold of corporate America, and actually turn it around to work for sustainability.

I think that we are at a point in time when the development of strategies to achieve sustainability are of the utmost importance. Obama is very likely to be our last hope. If he does nothing, or fiddles around the edges of sustainability, which he almost certainly will, then I’ll have to agree with you; an almighty crash event will be the only thing that will get our collective headspace around the imperative to live in balance with our environment and resource base.