Unemployment has now risen back up above 9 percent. Yet, at a time when our nation desperately needs private-sector job creation to lift us out of recession, one major impediment remains menacingly in place preventing would-be entrepreneurs from creating jobs for themselves and for others.
On the “macro” level see this:
Hoover, Bush, and Great Depressions
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Texas leads the country in job “creation.” One of the main reasons is the fact that Texas has one of the lowest regulatory and taxation burden of all the states of the Union, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the Obama administation, which has thrown every possible wrench to the machinery, from the EPA to the Dept of Agriculture: you name it.
“Unemployment has now risen back up above 9 percent.”
The number of people who can’t find work is much higher – over 20%.
But on the micro side, half the US economy is under the table. People with useful work skills can get by in hard times. It’s the government and corporation paper pushers who get the short end of the stick.
Re: billwald,
And… that’s bad… right?
“…at a time when our nation desperately needs private-sector job creation to lift us out of recession…”
Why? So people can spend more money? After all, consumer spending comprises two-thirds of all economic activity. Sounds very Keynesian to me.
What a blessed world you live in, where everything is free.
Obviously you didn’t get the point. But thanks anyway.
Could you please clarify?
It wasn’t clear to me if you’re criticizing the statement for being wrong or incomplete or both
Mark,
By far one of your best papers. I too hated our choice of candidates in 2000 and saw that either of them would create a disaster. I ultimately voted for George Bush in the hope that he would be less destructive than Gore. In 2004 then Democrats once again failed to field a candidate with policies even close to what our economy needed. Kerry was actually even worse.
The myth of Hoover has justified a lot of bad progressive policy. Hopefully, the truth of Hoover that is finally being discussed will help us choose leaders in the future.
Under “WTF am I reading”, we have:
“Obama’s Legal Duty to Create Jobs Now”
http://www.truth-out.org/yes-obamas-legal-duty-create-jobs-now/1313082465
The debate about the debt ceiling should have been a conversation about how to create jobs. It is time for progressives to remind the government that it has a legal duty to create jobs and must act immediately – if not through Congress, then through the Federal Reserve.
With official unemployment reaching over 9 percent, the unofficial rate in double digits and the unemployment rate for people of color more than double that of whites, it is nerve wracking to hear right-wing political pundits say the government cannot create jobs. Do people really believe this canard? On “Real Time with Bill Maher” a few weeks ago, Chris Hayes of The Nation stated that the government should create and has in the past created jobs, but he was put down by that intellectual giant Ann Coulter who said, “but they (WPA jobs) were only temporary jobs.” No one challenged her.
Most of the jobs created under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) – and there were millions of them – lasted for many years, or until those employed found other gainful employment. They provided a high enough income to allow the worker’s family to meet basic needs and they created demand for goods in an economy that was suffering, like today’s economy, from lack of demand. The WPA program succeeded in sustaining and creating many more jobs in the private sector due to the demand for goods that more people with incomes generated.
The most galling thing about pundits stating with such certainty that the government cannot create jobs is the implication that the government has no business employing people. In actuality, however, the law requires the government, in particular the president and the Federal Reserve, to create jobs. This legal duty comes from three sources: (1) full employment legislation including the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1978, (2) the 1977 Federal Reserve Act and (3) the global consensus based on customary international law that all people have a right to a job with favorable remuneration to provide an adequate standard of living. .
Soon the economy will bounce back and more jobs will generate.
Think positive and it will get better again.
The economy will getting better and everybody will get a job.
Fingers crossed, Economy will get better.
Let’s always hope for the best.
Because of the increasing number of graduates per year, I believe job competition becomes too tough. You may click here for some employment agencies.
The unemployment rate has come down to 9 percent this week with 80,000 jobs added. If both the Republicans and the democrats work together they will create more jobs and more people will get back to work. It will get better surely.
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