Job Number 1 -- Jobs

[jtuck004]

"The hole is deep. According to the Economic Policy Institute, even if employment grew at the rate it did at the height of the '90s boom (2.6 percent annually), we wouldn't see pre-2008 levels of employment until January 2015, in the middle of Obama's second term—if he has one. Every moment the president spends in denial of the problem jeopardizes his chances for re-election. And it looks as if the situation will only get worse; stimulus spending is now peaking, and brutal cuts at the state and local levels are already negating its effects. Zombie banks still aren't doing much lending, and no one knows how far the economic turmoil in Europe will spread."

from http://www.thenation.com/article/job-number-1-jobs


Anybody see any real job creation going on? As noted in the article, 41,000 private sector jobs added last month. We need 125,000 just to stay even and keep 15 million people unemployed. The job creation in the 90's mentioned in the article was boosted by the dot com boom and the Y2K build out.

See anything like that on the near horizon to put money in the hands of consumers so they can spend?

My wife is working commencement tomorrow for a university. I wonder what the speaker will say as he or she stares out at the bright, hopeful faces of hundreds of young adults with the certain knowledge that many of them will graduate with a ton of student loan debt and no job prospects, perhaps for years. Multiply that by all the colleges in the nation. Maybe the housing crisis will be settled down in time for the student loan default crisis?

Let me save you the effort of a click - from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm

Duration of unmployment, 27 weeks and over

Mar 2010
6,547,000

Apr 2010
6,716,000

May 2010
6,763,000

The deficit is the least of our worries. Let the Fed buy the debt. Add a trillion to the deficit. Put ten thousand business incubators in place. Government-funded no cost education online for adults. Rebuild the industries we have turned into scrap and teach the workers how to own the assets. Their taxes will pay down the deficit.

Want to win an election? Do you really think unemployed people are going to wait for the Democrats to attack this problem with as much interest as any war? Because it really is one, you know. Without an enemy to point at.

I have a suggestion. Let's not wait for the the administration to wring it's hands about the deficit, throttle our social security or cut spending which will insure high unemployment for a decade. Let's remind them, now, that our best assets are the 30 million unemployed and underemployed Americans. Let's use 'em.

[rzemanfl]

1. Just wait until the refugees from the Gulf Coast start looking for

work elsewhere.....