At least since Adam Smith's era, every nation in the world has used low cost, government supported loans to help pay for critical projects necessary for economic development. This is how in the United States we built the Erie Canal, fought wars, and constructed schools. And now we need a Green Bank to support low cost loans that steadily over twenty years, starting right away, will finance the conversion of America's energy industry from carbon to clean.

That is why more than fifty businesses have come together to form the Coalition for the Green Bank, of which I am the co-chairman. We have received expressions of support from many business lobbies as well as the Center for American Progress and environmental groups. Congressman Chris Van Hollen proposes to charter our Green Bank through legislation he has introduced in the House Ways and Means Committee. Our immediate goal is to have that Committee pass the Van Hollen Green Bank Act either as a standalone measure or as an amendment to the monumental Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and now referred to Ways and Means.

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Borrowing this chart from Brad De Long, our most excellent econoblogger and polymath, to make a few points:

The mainstream media don't (doesn't?) talk about work in a way that fits the times. In the 50s, when I was a kid, and well past 1969, after which I needed income to buy food, roof over head, and so forth, in my country less than 58% of adults worked even in good times. The signified premise behind this statistic was what we saw, back in the day, in TV sitcoms: one adult, usually male, supported a family. Over time that adult, with hard work and a little luck, earned increasing income, bought a larger house, saw its value go up at least according to inflation, enjoyed the tax deduction of the mortgage interest and so earned a retirement "nest egg," and worked for the same employer for eight years or even more. The stay at home spouse raised the children. This was the occasionally maligned (especially in novels) The American Dream.

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One way to look at the international situation right now is that we're suffering from a global paradox of thrift: around the world, desired saving exceeds the amount businesses are willing to invest. And the result is a global slump that leaves everyone worse off.

So that's how we got into this mess. And we're still looking for the way out.

This above from Paul Krugman today. Of course, he's right. And one critical way out is to channel the savings into green energy investing. This direction is taken by the following sequence of actions:
First, compel demand to be created by passing national renewable electricity standards that require every utility (the monopoly distributors of electricity to consumers) to purchase clean energy -- these standards should be high and (most important) steadily rising year over year, so that the demand is predictable for years to come.
Second, create a "good bank" or federal green energy lending facility that will create a marketable debt security with very low interest which will have two beneficial effects: (1) create the possibility of sound revenue for those who trade it, especially banks, and (2) provide green energy generators and distributors a way to fund the great overbuild of clean for carbon in a way that does not impose unwarranted costs on the whole economy.
Third, use this new good green bank to complement the excellent and visionary initiatives already in the stimulus legislation and to support and underscore the importance of putting a price on carbon, as will be done under the cap and trade program in the President's budget.

The twin tasks of government in every country are not ideological but scientific and economic: how can societies solve the problem of collective action in order to replant their energy production from carbon to non-carbon platforms and how can these same societies stop destroying wealth and income and begin increasing at least income for all their members.

President Obama's remarkable and very sudden accomplishments lay out a theory of the case. He has combined the two problems and launched wholistic solutions.

In the stimulus legislation he created more means to encourage alternative energy legislation than all previous presidents combined. These techniques include guaranteed loans for all sizes and types of alternative energy

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If this legislation is implemented effectively -- and there is every reason to think it will be -- then the possibilities are enormous. The decision to fuel numerous programs, as opposed to a single huge rebate or one massive tax cut, has led to the following:

1. Every department and agency in government is involved, which will energize creativity and commitment all across government.
2. The door is open to fresh thinking in every topic area: education, health care, energy, communications, transportation, housing, federal land and parks, and many others.
3. With so many involved, the creative ferment in government -- state and federal both -- can be quite stimulating.

There hasn't been so much new to hit government in thirty years. At least for a time, the private sector will be breathlessly trying to cope with the utterly new dynamics of our mixed economy.

The e-rate program, passed by Congress in 1996, required the FCC to determine how to spend what amounted to more than $2 billion a year in order to provide internet access to classrooms. In reading about various agencies now mandated to spend money under the stimulus, I thought it might be useful to list some of the lessons learned by the FCC.

First, involve as many stakeholders in the process as possible and as soon as possible. Don't think of the answer and then sell it; think of the questions and ask them. That means holding meetings, conference calls, convention-style gatherings. There's no shame in asking what to do; there's only regret to be had from not asking.

Second,

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The energy and environmental portions of the stimulus package are absolutely terrific. It will take a while to see what business plans are ideal, but it appears that the White House and its Congressional friends have done more to support alternative energy than the government has ever imagined possible. It must have been a team effort, but certainly the result supports the wisdom of having our capable, clever Energy Tsarina in the White House.

Senator Collins -- who is a not so much a moderate as a negotiator for the extreme conservative faction of American politics -- says that money spent to stop a global pandemic flu doesn't belong in the stimulus bill.That crystallizes the critical question for Congress as it goes into conference to decide the shape and size of the legislation that will determine, in all likelihood, the fate of the country for the next two or three years.

I agree that "stimulus" is not a well-chosen word for the critical legislation that Congress simply must pass. The critical bill at issue now is all about the long neglected investment in the public goods needed by our country now and in the future.

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President Obama (and I do like typing that) made a large number of evocative, important, and profound statements, but none more so in any of these respects than his commitment to rebuild our economy on a green base. In the stimulus appropriation and tax bills, in his continued reminder of the importance of obtaining energy independence and abating climate change, while creating millions of new green jobs (a trifecta of policy goals), our new and much welcomed President is making a clear statement of strategic direction. No other President has ever said and done so much to alter at the basic level the energy platform of our economy, and President Obama has only had a half-day in office.

Execution on his promise, pursuit of his direction, will be a monumental and hellishly complicated task. It will require not only the full force of the existing governmental apparatus but also many companion efforts outside government. But the direction set by the President is absolutely clear and that is the necessary, crucial first step.

Utah whipped Alabama 31 to 17 and the score did not reveal fully the wondrous skills and marvelous energy of the Utes of Utah. They appeared faster, tougher, meaner and more creatively coached.

But they do not get to play in the national ersatz championship game. This is a dreadful wrong. Almost every year the BCS final game should stand for Bogus Concluding Fiasco. Everyone knows, and our incoming President has said, a play-off is in order.

Among other virtues of a play off, the Sugar, Rose, Cotton and Gator Bowls of my youth could be resurrected in their former glory is they became necessary stepping stones to a final pairing. Put eight teams in a playoff series, and the television audience will soar for every game; have half the money go to supplement Pell grants instead of to the BCS cabal's football programs.

Congress must act, and act before another travesty occurs next year.

The Redskins were predicted to end at 8 and 8 and so they did. Ironically, the defense, stalwart most of the season, produced the losing sequence, appearing out of position and out of energy as the Niners drove to an easy field goal to win the game at the buzzer.

Let's document the atrocities:

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The Redskins were predicted to end at 8 and 8 and so they did. Ironically, the defense, stalwart most of the season, produced the losing sequence, appearing out of position and out of energy as the Niners drove to an easy field goal to win the game at the buzzer.

Let's document the atrocities:
1. The owner and his familiar, Vinnie the CEO, continued to mark themselves as the worst managing duo in pro football since Bidwell and Bidwell. They panicked with the two sudden injuries in the pre-season at defensive end and overpaid for Taylor who grossly underperformed. Their draft was famously awful. Perhaps it was the worst draft in the history of drafts; hard to say for sure but a monkey at a typewriter could have written a better novel than this duo picked wide receivers. And of course the very idea of picking wide receivers when both o and d lines were shaky, old, and thin was deeply, profoundly insane.
2. The Giants and Eagles were, after all, far better coached. Only the Boys were worse, and we can be pretty sure their coach will be fired. Zorn was, as one might have expected, unprepared for the many dimensions of the job. He acted like a qb coach and not a leader of a whole team. He should have had a creative, experienced offensive assistant; he didn't. He did too many jobs himself, and so did none of them very well. All this was in part due to the D and V mismanagement: they got what they asked for.
3. It will be a long time before the Skins get better. Indeed, it is possible that only a business failure that forces Snyder to sell the team will in fact produce an owner good enough to lead to championship team. People underestimate how valuable Cooke was to Gibbs. But Snyder is so young and so continuingly awful that the future looks dark for decades to come. I think it's possible that the awfulness of the Skins will last longer than my actuarial life expectancy. Now that's a dread-filling thought.
4. To be more particular about the matter: the outside positions on both o and d lines are woeful: small and weak where they should be large and strong.  The linebackers are, except for aged Fletcher, mediocre. These are the positions that should be filled by the draft and by free agent signings. I can bet they won't be; if D and V can get this wrong, and they can, then they certainly will. What is the worst they can do? They can draft another receiver, a running back, a quarterback, a punt returner, and a kicker. I bet they commit at least three of these five mistakes.
5. I note that the Skins castigate Jason LaC of the Wapo. He does a better job at his craft than anyone else at the newspaper. For that he is the object of contumely. There's no deserving in journalism or life.

Brad DeLong asks what is the sector of the economy that can attract new investment? Alternative energy generation and distribution is the answer. Approximately one trillion over the next ten to twelve years, please, should buy us energy independence, abatement of global warming and huge new job growth.

So says Eschaton: "Lucky that few understood the potential and didn't try to legislate or regulate it out of existence before it took off. Imagine telling senators in 1992 that soon every 13 year old would have a porn machine on his/her desk."

Well it was 1994 mostly, but we didn't mention the dark side to the senators and besides we were told by Andy Grove and Eric Schmidt and Marc Andreessen (who wore bib overalls and no shoes in the first meeting) that the upside case was worth the risk on the downside. So to summarize: yes. Saying yes to everything is a not bad first principle for conducting life as we know it, subject to having an exit strategy.

Says Eschaton: "The open internets was a bizarre historical accident, necessary to defend and unlikely to be repeated. People always object when I say this, but they're wrong."

But the open Internet as an experience and an ideal came from the decisions of the Federal Communications Commission, dating back to the 1980s and but most particularly in the salad days of Internet 1.0, aka dial-up circa 1990s, when we dinosaurs roamed the halls of the government and had our common carrier paradigm followed by the network-owning telephone companies. The Internet was open, cheap and widespread, because we said so. It was one speed because phone lines were all the same.

Then the FCC, with Congressional support, adopted unbundling and competition was the key to open: in a competitive world no one firm could successfully adopt closed as its business model. Those that tried, failed.

But the 00s brought a series of FCC decisions that repudiated common carrier as to data links, and encouraged consolidation, repealing unbundling, abandoning the goal of widespread high-speed connectivity, and changing open into an open door toward collaborative special deals between big content and big conduit. This is a history lesson for those too young or too concerned with other matters to have lived or learned these arcane facts.