Three years ago the economy was near full employment, people were spending money without worry, and financial markets were roaring. Three years later, the economy is in a terrible recession, consumer spending power has evaporated, and financial markets are among the worst in 100 years. Yet I ask myself a simple question: where did all the money go? Some argue they evaporated as consumers took capital out of their homes and spent it. But they spent them, which means they went to someone. What did those people do with it? Some argue that banks lent irresponsibly (which they did) to borrowers who could not repay the loans. But those borrowers spent that money on homes, cars, goods and services. What did the recipients of that expense do with the money? Some argue that Wall Street packaged and repackaged virtually worthless securities and sold them to unsuspecting investors (which they did) for lucrative commissions. But Wall Street spent the money on big buildings, airplanes, fat salaries and bonuses. The recipients of the large salaries and bonuses then spent the money on more cars, houses, vacations, and so on. The question still remains: where is all the money? Three years ago all the money circulating in the system was enough to make most people happy. The population has increased modestly over the past three years, but hardly enough to absorb that much money. The money was not burned, shredded or taken to landfill. If all the money floating around the system was more than enough to make most people happy, and all that money is still floating around the system, why are things so different now? Where did all the money go? I can only speculate that a huge amount of paper… was designed to determine what would encourage them to stop hoarding money. What would they spend money on? What would they invest in? Who will they lend to and under what conditions? By determining what would encourage existing money to start flowing again, we could potentially tip the scales without the side effect of extraordinary inflation. I will end this with an open appeal to those entities with enough money to be a player in this game. You know who you are because your net worth is measured in billions. Pick up the phone, get on a plane, get together and talk. The printing press is producing incredible amounts of money and as a result the money you are accumulating will be worth less and less. The economy moves in cycles and one way or another we will get out of this cycle. But it would be nice if we emerged without milk costing $10 a gallon.