Stunned?

I picked up a copy of The New York Times on my way home from vacation yesterday. I finally got around to reading it.





Front page -- Headline on the right side: Feeble Job Numbers Show Recovery Starting to Stall

First paragraph :...startling evidence that that the economic recovery is stumbling.

Third paragraph: Economists were stunned.

Stunned? How can they be stunned? Paul Krugman writes for the same paper. Don’t they read what he says? As I read the article all I could think was that it was exactly what Krugman has been saying. (Okay. Maybe a little bit of Robert Reich too.)



Listen up people. I know you’re busy.

1) The economy is broken. It will not heal itself.
2) “American” multinational corporations are doing fine -- in other countries.
3) Corporations will not create more jobs without demand from consumers.
4) There will be no demand from consumers until the consumers have jobs. Jobs that pay well.
5) The government (at all levels -- Fed, State, Local) is slashing good-paying jobs. State and local governments because they can’t borrow and they’re broke. Feds because Republicans won’t let us borrow any more.
6) The only entity in this country that can borrow and “create” demand is Uncle Sam. That means we need direct hiring by the Federal Government and BIG public works projects that employ millions. Think Hoover Dam. Times 100. Or maybe 1,000.

The alternative is stagnation at best or chaos at worst. The balance of power in the world will change. It will not be a smooth change. It might be cataclysmic -- as in World-War-II-like cataclysmic.

There is no light at the end of this tunnel. There is no “confidence fairy”. We -- the citizens of the United States of America -- will have to put on our big-boy pants and do something. It will have to be something big because it’s a big problem.

The first step should be to call your Representative and Senators and tell them to stop playing around with the debt ceiling. No negotiations. No bargains. No raising of taxes. No spending cuts. Just raise it. Pure and simple. We have enough real problems without manufacturing new ones. And make no mistake about it, the debt ceiling crisis is a manufactured problem.

Don Brown
July 10, 2011