Carlitos' Way

Carlitos' Way is a model of economic recovery proposed by an nine year old Ecuadorian boy named Carlitos, who learned basic American using an introductory Economics textbook.

Juan's Corollary is a more involved explanation of Carlitos' Way from an actual Economics major; Juan is Carlitos' older brother.

Foreword
Carlitos gave this letter to Atenea after one of their English classes, asking her to take it to Dr. Colbert because he was "on TV so he must be really important, like a Presidente." Carlitos, despite Atenea repeatedly telling him otherwise, refers to the Greatest President as the King of America. His reasoning is that he was not elected, does not behave responsibly towards the people, and "does silly things." Atenea have transcribed his letter exactly as written, so that it remains in his voice.

Carlitos' Way
Querido Sr. Colbert:

My name is Carlitos, and I am 9. I live in a tiny pueblo in the forest in Ecuador. My sister Maria sells empanadas to the people where the bus stops every week. She is the only person in the pueblo who brings back money. I have noticed that when she has money from selling empanadas, the whole pueblo has money. The burro man, the chicken man, the bread lady, the lady who runs the little shop. And all of the abuelas that make clothes have money. This is because when my sister has money, she spends it in the pueblo, and then all of the people in the pueblo can also spend that money to hire people and buy the things they need. It just keeps getting spent, again and again, except for the money that my sister sends to the banco in the city every month. That never gets spent again. She says it's important for me to go to school in the city when she has enough saved.

The good gringos come to our pueblo every week to teach us English. They show us your movies. In your movies, people from all over the world are honouring you because you are so smart. You are always helping people, and warning them about dangerous things. You always try to save the world. Maybe if your bears could have more bamboo, they would not eat the people. Our bears only eat bamboo. We saw you trying to help to the King of America, and were very sad to hear that America's Eagles are no longer soaring. How sad for them. Now they have to walk. Our condors soar high up in the mountains, and never have to walk.

When we heard that America's pueblos don't have any money, and the people don't have food or houses, and that more of them are losing their houses, everyone in our pueblo got very sad. The older women were crying for the starving American children, who have no corn to make humitas. They don't have anything to eat. My English learning book is called Practical Economics. It says if you give people money, they will spend it. Especially Americans. The book says they are very good at spending money. Then other people have the money, and they can spend it, again and again. Just like what I see in my pueblo when Maria brings money.

Sr. Colbert you must save your world! If there are 230M Americans, and the King of America gave them US2000 dolares each, that would equal US560B dolares of America. The king would have to give the burro man US2 to deliver the money to the rest of the Americans, but that is good because he will spend it, so that other people can spend it too. The numbers are very big. My brother Juan always gets gold stars at school, so he did the numbers. The numbers say that US560B plus US560M dolares of America, this is much less that what the King of America gave to the bancos, that was US700B dolares of America. Juan says, and it says in my English book, that when people are spending dolares, just like in our pueblo where there are 20 families, the same dolares get spent over and over again 20 times, before the dolares go into a banco. When the banco gets the money, the spending stops. US560B times 20 is US11.2T dolares of America. US11.2T minus US0.56T, and the King of America would have about US10.64T profit. All of the people in America would have houses and food, and the King would have 20 times more money than he started with. Juan says that there would be no more crisis, and your Eagles could soar again instead of walking.

If the King of America had all that profit, he could send some of it to us so that we could save our forests. My teacher says that our forests are very powerful. They control the weather for the whole world. But people are cutting down our forests, and the weather is going loco. It is destroying the houses all over your world. That is very far away from our forests. If the King of America took some of the money he made because Sr. Colbert saved America by using my ideas, and sent it here, we could pay the ransom to the big companies that are cutting down our trees. Then your eagles could soar, our forests would be strong again, and everyone in both worlds would have air to breathe. My teacher says that the forests are what make our air.

Mr. Colbert you can save the whole world. You must save the whole world. Your world and mine. The reason I am sending you my idea is so that you can save the whole world. Sr. Bruce Willis also saves the world, but he does not have a TV show. Maybe you can talk to him and the other heroes and they can help you talk to the King of America. Then the King can use my idea to save the world. You need to save the Colbert Nation! I have seen that in your world, there is a whole Colbert Nation of heroes. They could write letters to the King of America, telling him my idea too. If the King heard from a whole nation of heroes how to save his world, a good King would do it. Then everyone would be happy again, and your eagles would not have to walk.

I have given this letter to the good lady who teaches me English, and I hope she will send it to you.

Juan's Corollary
Carlitos is only 9 years old, and his grasp is of practical economics. His solution would resolve the interest on current US debt, and thus you'd be no further behind in late 2009 than you are right now. The benefit is that at least 70% of America would have food, shelter, and a way to pay their bills, and thereby the economic machine would not grind to a halt or dig itself any deeper into depression than it already has. The solution does not propose the printing of new money, which is the situation that normally causes inflation and devaluation of currency. The cash injection comes directly from the taxes that Americans have donated to the government. The gross mismanagement of the US economy has eliminated the equivalent of the GDP over the last 8 years. A practical example: a household operating for 8 years using solely credit and no income. At the end of those 8 years, all of their bills will be on final demand for collection. This is the current economic state of America. So, because the American people did not receive what they paid for (namely, goverment services), it appears to be fraud, and all of the elected officials are co-conspirators for the duration of the fraudulent activity. The elected officials knew it would all come back to them when the bankers started showing up in court, so they took more tax dollars and bought positions in the banks, so that the banks could not be sued without implicating the government of America. The government will have their employees - the judges - determine that is in the national interest not to investigate the causes and persons responsible, but it will cost a lot of your tax dollars to come to this conclusion. Enron and Worldcom are good examples of this process in action. Economically, the US is not at the bottom of the barrel, because the barrel was leveraged on a debt-swap a long time ago. To maintain the fiction of an economy, their only resort is to return the tax dollars to the American people, so that they can spend them and the chain of consumption can continue. As for the question of recession, that took place between September of 2007 and February of 2008, and since May of 2008, the United States has been in an economic depression that has reverberated around the world. 24 world economies, including the US, have been in depression for at least the past 8 months. If you're wondering how to define "recession" and "depression" you can look no further than the dictionary or any introductory economic textbook. Refusing to admit that your economy is in depression does not keep the depression from being real. The longer the US refuses to admit the depression, the worse and longer and deeper it will get. The suffering that this causes will be prolonged, and apparently this is what your current government wants. Just like President Clinton dug out the economy during his two terms, allowing a strong economy which President (or to use Carlitos' term, King) Bush has squandered, it looks very much like history will repeat itself in the Obama administration. Have no fear - when there is money to share and equity to squander, the Republicans will return to power. This cycle began in the 1960's, accelerated in the 1970's and came to a head in the early 1980's. Obvious examples are the Savings and Loan scandals, which were denied, dismissed, and moved forward to the present day. John McCain and the Kealy 5 know all about this. This correction has been necessary for over 30 years, and the sooner it is implemented, the sooner the pain and suffering of the American people, at least in this respect, will end.