(NOTE:  The following is a compelling manifesto written by a very successful businessman who now, just retired, is teaching Finance at Seattle University.  He also happens to be my brother!)

Bend an ear this way please – the political rhetoric is thick and mercifully will soon end, but before it does and since you never asked, please permit me to rant – on the economy. I have squeezed my anger into a simple 10 point “lecture format”:
1) Government is not the solution, Government still is the problem and will always be the problem.
2) A free market goes up, a free market goes down. When government intervenes these movements go on steriods. 
3) Fannie and Freddie are poster children of Government intervention making homeownership a “right” of every citizen and forcing banks to make toxic loans – regardless of ability to pay (per the Community Reinvestment Act). We are seeing the free market response to 10 yrs of government meddling and $4+ trillion in government backed loans that the market is now currently pricing at about 50 cents on the dollar.
4) The gargantuan size of this black hole is the main reason we are in the mess we are in. It spread to other areas, but it started here and it won’t go away soon.
5) The solution is not more government regulation. Here’s a thought exercise – Name one government regulation that has worked?
6) The solution is not bigger government handouts. Or transferring wealth from the producers to people who don’t pay taxes. Or punishing those evil corporations for their windfall profits (whose profits really belong to shareholders and there are 100 million of us and whose federal taxes paid to the government actually exceeds the so-called windfall). These actions can only worsen the mess, perhaps significantly.
7) The only actions that will work are getting back to free market principles with less government regulation, lower govt. spending, more open borders with free trade, and cutting taxes especially on producer corporations in America (who “enjoy” the 2nd highest worldwide tax rate next to Japan). A business tax cut from 35% to 25% (comparable to Europe’s rates) would do more to stimulate economic growth and jobs than anything presented by either party so far.
8) These prescriptions are not new and untested, they have worked in the past: First Ronald Reagan then Bill Clinton – independent of political party. Why believe this proven medicine won’t work again? And for the life of me I cannot figure out why no one but obscure economists (next point) are talking about it?
9) Arthur Laffer, noted economist,  says age of prosperity is over. I am too much of an optimist to believe this, but the case he makes that our current policies are heading us over a cliff is hard to dispute.
10) John Kennedy said: “No American is ever made better off by pulling a fellow American down, and all of us are made better off whenever any one of us is made better off . . . a rising tide raises all boats.” Arthur Laffer added this comment to the Kennedy quote: “Never forget or be ashamed of the fact that pursuing your own self interest furthers everyone’s interest. Without you, the poor would be poorer.”