The US Savings Bond won a war: could it save us again?

Many people are looking to President-elect Obama to be able to perform some sort of miracle to get America out of its economic and financial crisis. Well, perhaps looking at what past Presidents have done upon taking office is giving the new President some great ideas.

Everyone in the press and on the TV and radio is asking where President-elect Obama will get the huge sums of money needed to finance all of the programs he is discussing. Well, if you look back to the start of World War II, where did President Roosevelt find the billions of dollars to build the munitions, tanks and airplanes to fight two wars on separate sides of the Earth? FDR's answer: US Savings Bonds.

With most people afraid to invest their money in banks or the stock market, there is a huge amount of cash sitting idly on the sidelines. Why not create the positive climate and motivate people to invest in their government? In the early 1940s, the country was still continuing the long slow climb out of depression and everyone was afraid to invest their money into anything at all. A feeling of skepticism about banks and the stock market was still the pervasive feeling all across the land. (Sound familiar?)