Ten Percent Unemployment Is Bad News
Read more articles on Finance and Politics and The Thoughts Of A Writer In New York City.November 9, 2009
Posted by neillevine
November 9, 2009
Posted by neillevine
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As people who have visited this site should know, I have been complaining about the economy for a long time.
Basically, it is hard for a lot of people to make money. Unemployment is high. Housing values are lower than they have been in several years, translating into people losing money on what normally is a good investment.
The stock market, while right now somewhat higher than this recession’s lows, still stinks. The best equities market is a high one where a lot of people are making money. Then everybody is happy and looking to make bigger bucks, although that might not be a good market to invest in since it should be easy to lose money. With the rule buy low, sell high, it is not good to buy high in the first place, although you can always wish you were making money. Why should the market go up when it is just as easy to fall.
Of course, the best deal is to know what you are doing.
In any case, we have a big government Congress that is more active in the national economy than usual so there has been cash for clunkers and now breaks for first time home owners and boiler breaks and insulated window breaks and so on even though the economy continues to dither. Unfortunately, this is not free enterprise. It is more like a centrally driven command economic scheme run by apparatchiks who are churning their wheels without a rudder.
The economy is going nowhere. There are serious structural problems and Washington politicians play head games.
Ask is all this necessary? Why not solve the problem? Why are there still hang ups? What is wrong?
Specifically, where did the jobs go. The money disappeared when the stock market and property values began to sink. As capital and revenue dried up so did profits. We also have far too many politicians whose idea of a budget is to stick their hands in tax payer’s pockets and, voila, they discover money. So they have maxed out their credit and funded a lot of projects. Yet there is still something sadly amiss. This is not a rising tide lifting a lot of financial boats.
This is much more of a mess.
So how to make jobs?
It helps to believe and support the private sector. The government takes its share in taxes based on revenue from private businesses plus incomes taxes and so on. While their are too many politicians for whom this is not enough, it has worked remarkably well in the past.
And so on. This country has grown rich and powerful using this formula. Private enterprise. Private capital. Good jobs.
Unfortunately, this country is still buying far too much overseas and I doubt the problems are over. But the games go on. Where they will end is anyone’s guess.
I do, however, view the recently concluded Governor’s races as protests against this White House’s handling of the economy while the two big Congressional races might be viewed as support for his foreign policy initiatives, a mixed bag if you ask me.
Personally, I do believe Barry Barack Hussein Obama can do better. I believe BBHO can create good jobs if he extends his vision beyond his liberal biases into the private sector to envision good, high paying jobs. Ten percent unemployment is way too high. It is almost abusive. It is as if Washington collectively has turned a tin ear on the rest of the country. Elected officials have cozy deals and that is all that apparently matters.
Something is not quite right with all this and it begins at the top. In the White House. Barry Barack Obama has to look beyond his own cushy deal and see the pain and suffering and figure out a good plan to right the economic ship of state. Again, ten percent unemployment stinks and it is Washington’s responsibility to get the country going.
Harry Truman used to talk about where the buck stops. It would be nice if Barry Barack Hussein Obama did the same and figured out how to let others besides himself, with his rich book deals and sheltered investments, make money.
Publicly announcing where the buck stops would probably generate instantaneous jobs. But that is for the folks in Washington to figure out: where does the buck stop.
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