'The Real U.S. Fiscal Crisis Is Joblessness'

Bloomberg BusinessWeek:

The risk of economic stagnation should dominate discussions this week among the voting members of the Federal Reserve Board at its two-day meeting. Without dramatic action, the U.S. confronts an uncertain future—one that suggests "Americans on average would experience slower gains in living standards than did their parents and grandparents," according to consultancy McKinsey & Co.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg BusinessWeek

 

 

Comments

[Scott Zwartz]

12:58 AM on 06/24/2011

The Fed handles monetary policy. Jobs are not fiscal policy.

What are these jerks doing, playing musical chairs with economic terms?

When the meanings of words are destroyed, no coherent discussion can be held. It is like listening to Sarah Palin where the colonists become the Red Coats and the NRA warns the Brits not to take our guns.

[offmyrocker]

11:25 PM on 06/22/2011

This is BS and you all are lying...Obama has the economy is great he fixed everything and the troops are coing home to take the few jobs you have

[OldTulsan]

12:49 AM on 06/23/2011

Your "offmyrocker" is appropriate :-)

[irochfpst]

05:07 PM on 06/22/2011

YOU THINK?

[Pediego]

03:02 PM on 06/22/2011

How many job creating bills has the GOP led House introduced since Nov 2010 may I ask?

[isee61]

10:00 PM on 06/22/2011

None, they are trying like #E!! to keep the rich from getting poorer and the poor to stay that way and the middle class to go the way of the dodo.

[littleblackcat]

02:46 PM on 06/22/2011

The republicans have been howling about the deficit for nearly two years in an effort to distract people from the truth, that bush, cheney, and that debacle of an administration have nearly bankrupted the country. They had not word one to say about our ever-growing debt when bush was the one running it up.

A program to retrain workers who have lost their jobs to outsourcing, at NO INITIAL COST (you can't afford schooling when you don't have enough to pay your rent or mortgage), tax breaks given to companies who provide training and education in much the same way as the old apprentice system worked, and a supplemental levy against the very wealthy to fund road, bridge, and rail infrastructure are good starts.

Ending ridiculous tax cuts that were enacted on the basis of a bit of stupidity on bush's part: "We have a surplus that be returned to the people. That money doesn't belong to the government, it belongs to the people of the United States!" Baloney!! Taxes are what should be paid for the OPPORTUNITY to live and work in a nation that allows you to make money as an individual! That privilege should be paid for and is, as taxes.There ARE countries that would seize your money, maybe put you in jail.

[OldTulsan]

09:24 PM on 06/22/2011

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/02/congress-should-allow-trade-adjustment-assistance-to-expire
Congress Should Allow Trade Adjustment Assistance to Expire | The Heritage Foundation

"Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) provides substantia­l government benefits to American workers who lose their jobs because of foreign trade. The 2009 stimulus bill expanded TAA coverage and increased TAA benefits. However, very few workers lose their jobs because of foreign trade, and the Department of Labor’s Dislocated Workers Program already provides basic services to laid-off workers.

Congress should allow TAA to expire. If Congress does reauthoriz­e TAA, it should return the program to its pre-stimul­us scope and couple reauthoriz­ation with the pending free trade agreements­.

Original TAA Program

Free trade increases overall living standards. Economists estimate that the North American Free Trade Agreement saves the average American family of four between $1,300 and $2,000 a year.[1] However, trade can also cause severe losses for those who lose their jobs to foreign competitor­s..."

The Heritage Foundation is linked with the Koch brothers.

[Arts4u]

02:40 PM on 06/22/2011

This has been happening for the last ten years. Only 3 million jobs created, over 5.5 million outsourced and the population grew by 22 million.

And contrary to what this author of this article suggests... the answer will not be in high-tech. The intangibility of high-tech product has caused much of the mess. For example, Facebook is not worthy of the attention, nor promise that it has been granted. It's a chat room... with links attached. Woopee. Sorry, we cannot base an economy on selling marketing.

Unless we start investing in tangible real items.....and real manufacturing based here in the US, this race to the bottom will continue.

[sfizi]

02:21 PM on 06/22/2011

Duh ! ..

Corporate greed, financial scams, very poor government leadership ...

Adress that effectively and Get jobs back to the USA , lets be productive and cost effective see how fast we can turn this crap around

[cchuck]

01:46 PM on 06/22/2011

The stimulus money was essentially "wasted' and created only a few "temporary" jobs at costs of over $1million dollar each. The stimulus dollars should have been spent on the creation of jobs that produced products that would sustain the jobs market and keep the process/economy moving. Placing the emphasis on extending unemployment benefits and saving /creating government jobs did not yield any sustainable jobs. When the stimulus money was spent, the jobs were not continued as evidenced by the continuing increase in uneployment! Taxpayers spending on government jobs does not create any sustainable jobs.

[offmyrocker]

11:26 PM on 06/22/2011

No obama took 1.4 trillion spent is wisey and now you will see all of this spending getting pulled into his re-election campain. He is a crook, typical crook

[fortressfountain]

01:41 PM on 06/22/2011

The tax cuts did not create jobs-most of the jobs created under Bush were overseas jobs. The rest were due to the real estate bubble.
How come the health care insurance bubble is not creating jobs? Maybe because insurance ceos want all of the money for themselves and little will be trickled to care or to the people performing the actual work.

[Melinda Brunner]

01:08 PM on 06/22/2011

Stop the enormous profits of corporations, make them through regulations to put some back into the economy IN THIS COUNTRY. Oh we don't want to offend big business by asking them to pay their way. I say if a business leaves this country or doesn't pay taxes to this country, they and their shareholders should no longer be considered Americans. 'Love it or Leave it"? Pay up or Leave it!

[cchuck]

01:52 PM on 06/22/2011

Eaxctly!! That is why millions of jobs have been moved over seas. You can love or hate the big companies, but, they will leave if they do not make a profit. Take a look at California and companies are fleeing the state for more profitable locations. We must seek a more reasonable balance. My home state ofvIrginia has an unemployment rate of less tha 7% . Primarily because it is a friendly and great place to do business. Of course we are a right-to-work state and that is also an attractive inducement. So buy China or become business friendly!!

[OldTulsan]

02:46 PM on 06/22/2011

A profitable plant being offshored...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/29-11
Memo to Labor Movement: Follow UE's Lead and Fight Corporate Outsourcing | CommonDreams.org

"...In the case of Haskon, the plant targeted for closing has been a consistent money-maker for Esterline Technologies, based in Bellevue, Wash. The company has been a major defense contractor and the beneficiary of at least $66.9 million in taxpayer dollars from 2000 to 2009. This stream of tax dollars was very helpful in pumping up Esterline’s net earnings to $119.8 million last year. The federal contracts also helped Esterline CEO Robert W. Cremin to cream off $6,731,506 in total compensation in 2009. CFO magazine recently reported, “the company's defense contracts assure it a solid base of revenue for years to come."

Yet Esterline—the beneficiary of so much taxpayer-provided revenue, is moving rapidly to shut down Haskon, which has been producing sophisticated silicone gaskets and door-seals for all the major airplane manufacturers and the federal government for the past 80 years. Esterline will thereby add 100 more people to the ranks of the jobless in Taunton, a city of 56,000 where the unemployment rate is already at 9.9%.

[snip]

The struggle to save jobs at Haskon is precisely the kind of fight in which labor needs to invest enormous resources. Clearly, putting all of labor’s eggs in the Democratic basket is one investment that has not paid off."

[ThePeacemakers]

06:11 PM on 06/22/2011

If they leave and get cut off from all the subsidies...we'll separate the men from the boys.

[MrStat1]

04:17 PM on 06/22/2011

The Constitution will prevent much of what you want to do. Most of what you want would be declared unconstitutional.

[Melinda Brunner]

07:29 PM on 06/22/2011

It may be unconstitutional, but is how I feel.

[Russell Masingale]

08:38 AM on 06/23/2011

how is it unconstitutional? on the basis of corporate person hood or just because a big businessman would not like it?

[firstwizard]

01:03 PM on 06/22/2011

Republicans told us that the tax cuts would create jobs. I'm thinking they lied!!!

[offmyrocker]

11:29 PM on 06/22/2011

well lets start with the obama 7%UE or is that water under the bridge. Its no wonder most on this site are poor freaking cant do anything by themselves

[Russell Masingale]

08:40 AM on 06/23/2011

so where are jobs from the bush tax cut? shoved in the koch brothers pocket or in china. don't expect to see any of those jobs back. now can we raise taxes and get new jobs please? can we ever raise taxes or just keep cutting the public good until the only thing left is oil subsidies and the army?

[Steve Rockett]

12:03 PM on 06/22/2011

The regressive party promised jobs if elected in 2010. Where are those jobs? All I see is arguments about womens' medical rights and the deficit. Let's hope the unemployed vote for a solid democratic majority so we can get things moving again. The only job creation has come under Obama.

[wolfpack1960]

11:44 AM on 06/22/2011

WOW!......Obama's incompetence is so massive that not even the liberal media can hide it.......Articles with Obama holding babies can not hide the horrible reality that massive expenditures by government after robbing the producers can not possibly help

[OldTulsan]

12:10 PM on 06/22/2011

Obama is very competent -- at serving the top 1%.

[JustaSlob]

12:14 PM on 06/22/2011

Two years ago I'd have argued that point with you til midnight.
Not now.

[SingingGuy]

10:59 AM on 06/22/2011

It is not difficult to understand. The jobless don't have money. Therefore they cannot have an impact on stimulating the economy. They are also paying less or no taxes thereby increasing the pressure on the U.S. deficit. Many live in areas where the only real investment they had, their home has had its value decimated by the foreclosure crisis. Until we solve the foreclosure crisis, we will still have a high jobless rate, and until we solve the jobless crisis we will continue to have a foreclosure crisis.

[AyeChart]

11:07 AM on 06/22/2011

1) Jobs are what people do that is useful to someone else in the manufacture of a product or the delivery of a service. 
2) One cannot simply hire someone to be giving them a job--they have to be NEEDED.  That's the flaw in the government's schemes to "create jobs" or give tax credits for hiring someone.  Nobody's going to hire someone just to get a tax credit!  They have to be hired because a task requires performing.
3)Government, looked at logically, cannot create jobs.  They can certainly destroy jobs--they are good at that--and they can move a job from one place to another in the economy by doling out favors to certain people, usually campaign contributors, but this takes a job away somewhere else.
4) A growing economy produces more jobs and therefore improves demand.  Keynesian economists have it backward, thinking that artificial demand creates a growing economy.  It's 180 degrees from reality.
5) STOP THE SPENDING, STOP REGULATING, and for heavens sake STOP THINKING THAT BUREAUCRATS KNOW HOW TO MANAGE AN ECONOMY.  Especially, stop thinking that a left-wing community organizer knows a blessed thing about economics in the real world.

[Butquestioning]

11:37 AM on 06/22/2011

But it was the stopping of spending and deregulation that led to the economic mess we are in...When consumers stop spending, demand is decreased and businesses cut back on staff. How does cutting more spending, whether by the government or consumer, create more demand/jobs?

And deregulation created the SWAPS that caused the financial system meltdown and the failure or near failure of many of our banks causing the "bailout" to occur. Greenspan even admitted that he was wrong to think that business would regulate itself.

As a businessman, I would never cut jobs, cut marketing expenses and products and services, cut back on hours and expect to GROW my business. I might even add to staff, increase product lines and inventory and expand my hours of business, possibly even taking out a loan to grow my business. Yet the Republicans want us to beleive that we need to cut to grow...totally illogical to me...

[fineartgalaxy]

11:47 AM on 06/22/2011

And the prior right-wing- former- Governor- successful- business- guy knew what he was doing when he de-regulated the ones that really- know -about -economy Wall Street and the banks?

[Timma]

10:50 AM on 06/22/2011

In any economy human capital is one of most underutilized and wasted resources. The right to work, living wage, mandatory paid vacation, single payer health care for all are just some of the ways to resolve the crisis. CEO's must be taught to become more like those who work for them. I'm not holding my breath.

[OldTulsan]

11:21 AM on 06/22/2011

CEOs are not going to change without incentives, such as fear.

"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them."

— Frederick Douglass, 1857

[Timma]

02:36 PM on 06/22/2011

...Frederick Douglass - genius...