What should we do about the economy?

That is the question that every American is thinking about- the government, the media, the folks sitting at the diner because they lost their jobs. Sometimes it’s what we should do, others it’s what we can. It comes down to what we will.

Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary, announced that the $700 billion in bailout money will be extended through next October. He described the economy as having “significant challenges.” Man, I could be the treasury secretary if that’s all the more specific you have to be about it. The move is a nod to Republicans who feel that it is necessary- as does Geithner, apparently.

"This extension is necessary to assist American families and stabilize financial markets because it will, among other things, enable us to continue to implement programs that address housing markets and the needs of small businesses, and to maintain the capacity to respond to unforeseen threats," said Geithner.

Unforseen threats? We are now referring to financial difficulties as threats. Mmm.

This does go along with Obama’s call for tax breaks to small businesses and his new focus on job creation through the White House. It also doesn’t do any favors for the state of the dollar on the world market.

Just how much money are we going to print? Just how many handouts are we going to make? It seems like everyone is short on money right now- the banks are being bailed out, the companies are getting bailouts and tax breaks, yet people are losing their jobs and their homes and signing up for food assistance in record numbers- what is going on? It seems our debt is catching up to us. We just don’t have the money to pay for all of the things that we have- for all of the things we spent our money that we didn’t have in the first place on. And, of course, we now owe interest.

What will it mean for us to continue creating money by printing it rather than by lending it out? It’s throwing off the gears of the system quite wretchedly already and while there are fragile signs that the economy is recovering, or should I say, slowing its decline, there are many experts and pundits alike who are saying that there is more drop to come, that the recession will double-dip, and that we are just throwing money at the problem.

I tend to agree. The idea of fixing a financial crisis with more money doesn’t make sense. Our economy has been based on constant growth, and we just don’t have any more room to grow in the present set of things.

It’s time for the triple bottom line to not be an alternative, but to a new ethos. Imagine the new markets that could exist if people got as excited about the bottom line for people as they do for money, or the bottom line for the planet. It could be a whole new way of valuating companies and a new way to look at the stock market.

It will happen, I think. The root of the problem in our economic crisis is not a lack of money but a flawed way of valuing things.