One Week Into a New Era and This Pessimist Sees a Glimmer of Positive Promise

After the events of last week in DC, things like the stock market, banking crisis, business closings, devastating earnings reports, CEO firings, and even banking technology seemed so insignificant in the scheme of larger issues. I was hearing about "a dream," "change," and values far greater than what Marketwatch, Bloomberg and the WSJ report. Why, I even got a temporary feeling of comfort yesterday when a pooch licked my knee during my trek at Katy Trail. The owner apologized, but I asked her if the pooch could do it again on my return. It felt good.My favorite news clip last week was about the closing of Guantanamo. That's a nice first step, but there should be more to it than that. I'm offering my plan even though no one asked for it:

The greatest piece of news to restore a bit of our self-respect would be if the U.S. bulldozed the memories of what's on Gitmo land and turned title over to a country like Switzerland. A covenant would require that future use of the land would be dedicated to peace causes-call it a Peace Think Tank, but with no one in charge. I'm a little sour about former leaders right now, in both business and government, so I'm opting for none. Every country in the world would participate equally regardless of (insert the string of labels from President Obama's inaugural speech).

President Obama would be a guest just like anyone else. President Raul Castro would also be a guest, although we wouldn't mind if he provided the Cubano coffee and cigars after meals. If it were up to me, I'd like to see Fidel there also as a gesture of brotherly love and bygones be bygones. And the Jews and Palestinians could take a break from their wars to see how cool life can be if you're not hating and bombing for 50 years. The general rule would be, if you can swim to Cuba, sail or fly in, you're welcome to join in diplomatic discussions regarding what your grievances are and how many ideas you can bring to the beach.

Tables don't work here. We tried round ones, trapezoids and vessels only to go back to feuding. One rule would prevail-Leave your "baggage" at home. I would suggest some recreation after the meetings. Golf, basketball, swimming, tennis, soccer and track-sporting events that aren't just American. No bowling or skeet shooting, at least for the first couple of years, until we sort out our American strengths. No reason for us to be total losers in this new world of love and harmony.

I know someone out there is going to say we have a United Nations for what I'm proposing. And to that I say, the UN is like issuing free McDonalds gift cards to every obese person in the world. The UN doesn't change or solve anything; it just feeds what's wrong. Part of what I am reading about "change" is to go back and start over. Cuba is an adorable place that creates great baseball players. NYC is not adorable and it pays its baseball players far too much money. If President Obama and President Castro can shake hands and lift the embargo, it would send a great message to the world that we are a "sweet" nation. Even the Hatfields and McCoys would question the basis of that 46-year-old feud.

And there you have it, folks, one good idea in the right direction. The next one is to close down the wars. If we fix who we are, and focus on repairing our tarnished image, then the economy might just take care of itself. It has been a week already. Do the economists have a better plan?