Economic turmoil brings new luster to some classic catchall solutions.

When markets fail, governments rewrite the rules. And this world of new rules is starting to feel strange: Any day now, Henry Paulson himself will approve your small business loan or cut you a dividend check, and John McCain will renegotiate your mortgage. These balms might ease the pain in the short term—Obama and McCain are updating their economic plans daily—but ideologues and big thinkers on all sides worry that we’re avoiding the deeper problems. In other words, that we’ve been engaging in life-jacket capitalism.

Not to worry—there are ready-to-eat solutions! Many grand policy schemes have been kicking around in think tanks and legislative wish lists for decades. What’s different is that now, with the entire system of national and global economic regulation up for grabs, some of them might get a chance. With every crisis comes an opportunity; as the bailout dust starts to settle, The Big Money looks at some of the big ideas for more wide-ranging reform of our economy and our institutions.

1. Tax financial activity!

Many salvation-seeking progressives have turned to taxation. First proposed in 1972, the Tobin Tax looks to “throw some sand in the wheels” of the markets by taxing currency conversions. Economist James Tobin was worried about “the excessive international—or better, inter-currency—mobility of private financial capital.” This accelerated in the early 1970s; major industrialized countries moved from fixed to flexible exchange rates and big movements of currencies reduced the autonomy of governments over their economies. Sound familiar?