With Barack Obama taking office next week, the ideas are pouring in on how to get the United States back in order again.

One of the most interesting comes from Professor James C VanHorne at Stanford Graduate School of Business. In his piece, Financial Restoration for the United States, VanHorne has come up with some radical ideas.

First, he says there is a need to consolidate the regulatory agencies and establish a super-agency that would have broad powers to regulate investment banks, insurance companies, mortgage companies, hedge funds, finance companies, thrifts, credit unions, commodity firms, brokerage firms, prime brokers, derivative and futures markets dealers, and banks not regulated by the Fed and FDIC. The agency's governing board would be independent and appointed by the Congress and the president for 10-year terms on a staggered basis. Under his model, the Securities and Exchange Commission would have its powers wound back, and be responsible only for disclosure of information to investors on new and existing securities, together with oversight of mutual funds.

He says there is also a need to establish a new department to facilitate workouts for mortgages and other loans, getting around the problem that so many of these loans have been securitised which can in turn create legal impediments to a workout. And finally, he wants a rethink of notions around the allocation of social capital with the government paying an interest-rate or principal subsidy to the lender or to the borrower for certain types of socially desirable loans, making it more sustainable than Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.