Hello,
I'm writing to you because I think you are the best of the best and, unfortunately, I have very little faith in the ability of those at either the Fed or the Treasury to find a working solution to the problems that face us. Quite the opposite, I'm afraid they are doing more harm than good.
I think you all provide an invaluable service, which can be witnessed empirically by the sheer number of readers you have. Perhaps I've been unduly influenced by Michael, but I do think we are fast approaching a point of no return in this country. Without a radical change in the current policies, I think things can get very ugly. Ugly as in social unrest and large-scale rioting.
I think that what is required is no less than an intellectual revolution. I think the people who know what is going on, i.e. you, need to get together and present a unified front that cannot be ignored by policy makers. You have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people you can directly reach out to and I would almost say that you have a responsibility to come together.
Blogs are one thing. They serve their purpose, but they only skim the surface of what can be done collaboratively in an online environment. Not only you, but your readers are extremely insightful and more than willing to express opinions and provide analysis. I think we need to harvest that.
I've always said that one should refrain from complaining about something unless they are willing to offer a better alternative. My humble primordial attempt to create an alternative is a new online community I just created:
http://financialcrisis.wikidot.com/
Currently, it consists of little more than a wiki and a discussion forum. I would highly encourage you to check it out if for no other reason than to just have a glimpse of what might be possible. From there, feel free to participate, in which case you could encourage your readers to participate as well, or create your own community on your own site that serves a similar purpose. In any case, I do feel there is a sense of urgency and I am certain that if all of you put your minds together, as well as the minds of your readers, we could create a voice so loud that it would have to be heard by the administration. I'm happy to turn over the reigns of the site to any of you. With a single request on your blog, you could easily find someone tech savvy and willing to improve the look and feel of the site. I'd be happy to hand over the reigns to anyone you recommend for that purpose as well. It doesn't matter as long as it gets done.
In the meantime, I will begin to aggregate ideas you have already expressed and give them a permanent home on the site (with proper references, etc).
Thank you again for the invaluable service you provide on your blogs and please consider helping to find a way to harvest the intellectual power of your communities to create a lasting and powerful solution to the problems that face us.
Best regards