Nothing stifles an economy like unpaid debt, goods borrowed and not returned, lack of confidence, injustice, unfairness, lack of meritocracy, expenditure with no returns, and dishonesty.
The main source of income for financial institutions is interest from loans. It appears that they need to take more interest in helping borrowers make their enterprises successful. The state of the economy should inform these lending agencies of what reasonable rates of interest can be applied.
There are too many properties in foreclosure. This is an opportunity for debt collection agencies to make purchases at discounted rates and resurrect these dead properties through resale. Merely deferring payments at this time may not be sufficient to help borrowers.
A period of no interest charges is needed. While we are in self-quarantine, we now have the time to conduct an inventory of all items in our household. Things we may find that need to be returned to their owners may include:
Borrowed tools
Dishes and utensils we received with food
Evidence of monies owed
Books
We should not underestimate the effect of the return of these tangible items in constituting a stimulus package for the owners.
Another inventory that we should do is that of our attitude and mindset:
Anytime from now as we audit our stimulus economic package we would look with pride at what we accomplished. Tools and resources would be where their rightful owners need them. Individuals would be meaningfully engaged in productive activities. No one would have been taken advantage of because of the receipt of state resources, there would be no evidence of a Quid Pro Quo, and the appropriate question would not be, “Who was stimulated?” but “What was stimulated?”
