So insane, it might work...

I love "out-of-the-box-" thinking, so I am going to quote wholesale from The Rational Capitalist Blog - it sort of reminds me of my grandpa, who used to say the federal government should restrict itself to making war and delivering mail...

How to Solve Economic Crisis in 5 minutes

from The Rational Capitalist by Doug Reich

• Recognize that the role of government is to protect individual rights including property rights by barring the initiation of physical force and repeal all laws and regulations in violation of this principle including any laws that abridge the freedom of production and trade
• In accordance with this principle, restrict the federal government to the following activities:
• The national defense
• Enforcement of domestic criminal law
• The court system to resolve disputes
• Specifically, this would entail cutting all federal government departments except the following:
• Department of State – foreign relations, treaties, etc.
• Department of Justice – settle interstate legal disputes and enforce interstate criminal law issues
• Department of Defense – maintenance of standing military
• Department of the Interior – administer the federal government’s land and buildings
• Department of the Treasury – administer finances of federal government
• Repeal the Federal Reserve Act to eliminate the Federal Reserve System
• Government’s gold stock made redeemable for US Dollars
• US Dollars priced in gold at whatever price necessary not to contract present money supply
• Federal government recognizes gold and silver as legal tender at prevailing market rates
• Allow private banks to replace the Federal Reserve as depository, loan and clearing institutions
• Law recognizes the difference between deposit contract and loan contract, i.e., irregular deposits made with banks do not constitute a de facto property transfer whereas a loan does constitute a transfer of property
• Eliminate all federal taxes and replace with system of voluntary contributions and user fees for government services including fees to uphold contracts, register deeds, etc.
• Auction off all federal lands (including waterways) and buildings except those needed for the above departments
• Everything else left to states

I predict that the Dow would triple if not more in one day if this program were announced on CNBC. As well, all foreign currencies would plummet relative to the dollar which would force other countries to follow America's lead and go back on a gold standard.

Note that this plan would lead to widespread prosperity and happiness and does not cost any money.