When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and one represents opportunity.

JFK-Remarks at the Convocation of the United Negro College Fund, Indianapolis, Indiana, April 12, 1959

Introduction

We live in interesting times. Times of crisis. Yet within that crisis lies opportunity.

In his book, Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century, Mark Blyth explains to readers that times of economic crisis are in fact times of opportunity.

Lost in this past week's dismal news for 401k retirement reports (can we call them 201k's now?) is a silver lining for the consumer: this recession, like every 20th century recession before it, has created enough demand destruction to break the back of inflation. Been to your local gasoline station this past week? Odd are, you are seeing prices you haven't seen in a long time. In fact, the price of Oil per barrel is now lower than it was a year ago. Here's the graph demonstrating that truth:

When I saw the alternative bailout bill from the so-called "progressive caucus" it struck me as just how intellectually bankrupt the progressive left is. Since when did suspending "fair value accounting standards to financial institutions" be anything other than Enron accounting?
All the great progressives in history rolled over in their graves the day this worthless legislation was proposed. You would never know that the progressive left was founded on Big Economic Ideas after reading this bill.

With this complete lack of direction from the political leadership as an example, I have to wonder if the average progressive is similarly ignorant of all the great ideas that have come before them. So I decided to present just a few Big Ideas from a proud history. None of these ideas are strictly socialist, but all of them have been tried before and worked.