Interesting, I was thinking about that same “Mission Accomplished” thing the other day, same mistake Bush made with the Iraq War, failure to grasp the underlying nature of the crisis, false declaration of victory, protracted quagmire in the aftermath.

Although in fairness, I’m not sure what I would have done differently. The situation was fairly precarious a couple of years ago, from everything I understand. Here’s my starter list though:

– Guarantee all bank accounts and transactions
– Immediately seize insolvent financial institutions
– Fire management and remove board of directors
– Prosecute fraud where applicable, enforce laws
– Begin restructuring troubled banks for workout
– Break up “Too big to fail” banking institutions
– Implement serious financial regulatory reform
– Workout pricing imbalances in the housing market
– Expedite foreclosures with social assistance

Feedback and critique welcome.

Rich, what would you have done?

Anybody else care to venture into a real economics and policy debate? Imagine you are an economic advisor to the President in early 2009. What would your practical recommendations have been to respond to the banking crisis and housing bubble?

(Avoiding party politics here. No talking points, please.)