This crisis have demostrated a lot of points which from 1997, we should have learnt -

(1) having a large foreign reserves do not protect the value of your currency [neither do you want your currency too strong],
(2) Regionalisation - you decide,
(3) paying ministers millions in salary serves nothing, just let them live in a way that is divorced from the mass population,
(4) Storing wealth via property is not really a good idea - housing is purely a social policy and harms the mass population by tying up significant wealth in a illiquid and "beg the bank" condition.

We definitely need to stimulate domestic consumption, whether it will result in a leakage or not, needs to be done. Even if we import, there is value added that stays in the country - no one sells at cost. It will mean that we, as a nation, will hopefully, be subjected less, not none, to the vagaries of the international world.

It is a tough problem to solve, that is why, we pay millions in salary for the best and the brightest to serve us. Otherwise, we can just pay them the amount that the US government is paying, why pay more?