U. S. Senate Candidate Tom Fiegen on Fiegenomics
Tom Fiegen, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate is an eastern Iowa attorney with a Masters Degree in economics from the University of Iowa. He has developed a set of economic policies he calls “Fiegenomics.”Fieg•en•om•ics: an economic set of policies that advocates i) the use of federal fiscal policy to create full employment; ii) providing access to health care for all members of society regardless of income, and iii) banning financial piracy on an individual and national level.
We are hovering at 10% unemployment. Last week (the week ending March 13, 2010) 432,166 people applied for unemployment for the first time in America. Almost 15 million of our fellow citizens are out of work as of February 2010. Another 8.8 million are involuntarily working part-time. Another 2.5 million have become what economists describe as “discouraged workers” and have stopped looking for work. Combined, these workers amount to 1 in 6 of our fellow working Americans.
New housing starts were down 6% in February 2010 compared to January and almost exactly where they were a year ago in the depths of this recession. Plus pending home sales were down 7.6%.
On top of that, according to RealtyTrac, 1 in 7 homeowners are in default and proceeding towards foreclosure. A year ago it was 1 in 10. Home foreclosures are not expected to peak until December 2010.
Like the 1930s, banks are failing and they are not making many loans. The FDIC closed 7 banks last Friday (March 19, 2010) bringing the total closed to 36 for 2010. They closed 140 banks in 2009 and expect to close more this year. My clients who are good business people are having a hard time getting operating capital. For firms that I have met with in Iowa, sales are only 60% to 70% of what they were in 2008.
Our financial system is still a mess despite the announcement of a combined NINE BILLION DOLLAR fourth quarter 2009 profit for Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase. Speaking of Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase, I am against the pirates on Wall Street who speculate on a product making more money on that product than the workers who produced that product.
47 million of our fellow citizens have no health insurance. An even larger number, like me, to use a technical term have “crappy” insurance with high deductibles, high co-pays and lots of exclusions. Medical costs increased five times as fast as inflation in 2009 and are literally crippling many of our businesses. The new health care reform bill is a step in the right direction, but we need to do more to control costs and provide access to affordable health care for all Americans.
On top of ALL of that the pirates on Wall Street took our nation hostage in the 2008 with credit cards, sub-prime loans, credit default swaps, and exotic derivative investment scams.
We find ourselves in this mess because of the Republican policies of tax cuts for millionaires, deregulation of the banks, and incompetence and frankly GREED. Two words make the point: Bernie Madoff.
I’m campaigning for the United States Senate based on three economic principles that I call “Fiegenomics.” They are:
1) Full employment. A job for everyone who wants to work.
2) Health care for all Americans.
3) Banning financial piracy.
To read the rest of Tom Fiegen's Fiegenomics policy statement, click here.
~Tom Fiegen lives in Clarence, Iowa and is a bankruptcy lawyer and economics professor. He is a Democratic candidate to be
the junior United States Senator from Iowa. He faces Bob Krause and Roxanne Conlin in the Democratic primary on June 8. To learn more about Tom Fiegen, check out his web site fiegenforussenate.com
To donate to the Fiegen campaign, click here.
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