Happy New Year!

2008 sucked.
2009 sucked more.
2010 will probably suck less, because at least Wall Street is reviving from the great Recession of 2009, which means that my retirement portfolio is recovering. But the economy is still very shaky. Things that will, in my humble opinion, make 2010 suck more.

Nationalized Health Care Reform bill actually gets reconciled and passes. With that, my children will get health care (maybe) but they will also be in debt to the government their entire lives.

Whether Nationalized Health Care Reform passes or not, the government does not immediately begin to do something to restrain medical lawsuit abuse (called "tort" reform by some). Why should the lawyers and politicians miss out on the recession?

Timothy Geithner gets his wish and TARP money is instead used as an administration "slush fund". If they are not going to use it for Troubled Asset Relief, then they should put it back in the treasury. But instead it appears that the Chief Financial Wizards of Smart think that hard-earned American taxpayer money can be fraudulently used for any purpose they want once they manage to get it out of the treasury. Note to Congress: You want to spend TARP money on other funds to stimulate the economy? Cool. Put the TARP money back first, then have a stand-up debate in the Senate and House like you should, and if it passes, then GREAT.

The government printed $2 billion in March, 2009. This makes inflation an almost guaranteed bet to occur in 2010. To make 2010 suck less, take $1 billion of that out of circulation as a preventive measure. It would additionally make every dollar that would be left in circulation worth about 6% more, which would make everybody who invests or saves with dollars as opposed to, let's say, gold,(which is almost everybody) happy.

The government continues to advocate spending our way out of the recession (Cash for Clunkers, extension of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, the new proposed Cash for Old Appliances).