What should be done to turn around the economic fear?
Fear.
Despite the better than expected jobs report today — unemployment fell to 9.1 percent in July as 117,000 new jobs were created — fear has taken over the stock and job markets. There is increasing talk of a double-dip recession.
Unfortunately, the tools generally available to deal with those problems are much fewer in number. The 2009 stimulus package stopped us from going over a cliff, but it didn’t restart the job engine. Now, rather than spending money to create jobs, the federal government is cutting spending. And the Federal Reserve already has cut short-term interest rates to near zero and had two rounds of bond-buying with limited results.
Meanwhile, companies are sitting on about $2.5 trillion in cash. But hiring lots of workers doesn’t appear to be on their agenda. At least 250,000 to 300,000 new jobs need to be created each month to put a significant dent in the jobless rate.
What do you think should be done? Tax cuts? Infrastructure spending? Let the free market runs it course?
- Henry Unger, The Biz Beat
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80 comments Add your comment
Point/Counterpoint
August 5th, 2011
11:55 am
Lets be Reasonable – “Not even Superman can right this massive ship with all of its moving parts and an ever increasing interconnected world economy couple with a political system where winning is most important, in three years.”
WHAT? Didn’t you get the memo? We need to eliminate all taxes and eliminate all regulation. While we’re at it, we need to have a National employers day where all the employees can bow down and worship at the alter of their benefactor and thank them with gifts of virgins and animal sacrifices for letting them keep their jobs for just one more day. That should get the economy going. Oh, and it’s all Obamas fault.
Jonathan
August 5th, 2011
11:56 am
You want to get to the real root of the problem? Drive around rural America, or inner-city America, or small-town America a little and tell me what you see. You’ll see a world in which small-holders, local businesses, local markets have been sucked dry, where storefronts are boarded up, where the only shiny new looking buildings are banks and government buildings, and maybe some corporate chains. You’ll see a world where governments, the financial industry, and big corporations hold most of the cards- and it is a rapidly sinking world. All the machinations of financial capital and the support of governments cannot mask the basic realities behind the American economy: it is an economy controlled by and increasingly only benefiting the very few. It is an economy that produces virtually nothing, where most workers go in to work to shuffle papers and information around, or to rearrange products produced elsewhere. A world of dessicated communities, people united only by their shared reactions to the latest nonsense the entertainment industry has put out, or the political theatre Washington puts on. A world of corporatism and state-control, where faceless bureaucrats in some far-off center of wealth and power push the buttons and hand down decrees, whether they are the bureaucrats of governments or bureaucrats of some corporation. A world where the very people impacted by all of this fight and squabble amongst one another over which idiotic political party is responsible, and which one can ‘fix’ all our problems. Or worse, a world where one faction finds a scapegoat minority and affixes all the blame to them, whether that minority be Muslims, immigrants, or fundamentalist Christians.
Instead of tilting at political windmills, we must begin to imagine a different sort of world, a world that is not controlled by grasping corporations and paternalistic governments, a world in which the people who do the work profit from the work, a world in which we help each other and live in free communities, not the coercive ones of the state, a world in which markets are truly free and interconnected and serve the needs and desires of the people who participate in them, who buy and sell and make- not bureaucrats or officials in Washington or New York or wherever. A different world is possible, but it is not possible through the politics of the Washington circus. We- individuals, families, voluntary groups, neighborhoods, unions, churches- must work together, free ourselves from out many shackles, and build this better world. We’ve waited long enough for corporations and governments to build it for us.
Pundit
August 5th, 2011
11:59 am
I think following should be done immediately:
Increase Custom Duty (on all imports) by at least 100%. This move alone would put our citizens to work.
Cut taxes on lower income groups.
Cut welfare on all healthy young people and encourage them to get subsidized vocational training.
Out source our expensive prison system, at least those who have committed violent crimes.
There are many things we can do and put this country back on the rails to prosperity.
james
August 5th, 2011
12:40 pm
hows that change working for you lol
james
August 5th, 2011
12:40 pm
hows that change working for you lol
LJ
August 5th, 2011
1:12 pm
I am amazed by the ignorance of some posts. The assertion that corporations are greedy for “sitting” on cash(and that they are somehow holding the economy hostage to get lower taxes?) is completely false. In this economy cash on hand is INSURANCE. There is near zero certainty about tomorrow, let alone next quarter. Having ample cash on hand keeps operations running seamlessly when things go south and PREVENTS massive layoffs.
Get a damn clue.
Michelle
August 5th, 2011
1:55 pm
How about you, the news, stop spreading panic and fear?? How about you all shut up and maybe, JUST maybe, the economy would be just fine! Panic breeds panic. I am so sick of it. I am going to start boycotting news. Starting with AJC.
BRIN
August 5th, 2011
2:16 pm
If Obama announced he would not seek reelection or was impeached the markets would soar….that would be change we could all believe in !
Ken
August 5th, 2011
2:21 pm
I’ve owned a small business for 30 years now, any small business owner could have predicted where the economy was headed way back in the Bush
era. How do you go to war and cut taxes? Who’s paying for the war? When he sold the American people on the war it’s to bad he didn’t have to sell them on a tax increase to pay for it or no war. Not an Obama fan by any means, just feel he was handed a train wreck and now he gets more than his fair share of the blame. We need a President that knows
how to bring the people together to solve the problems, looking at the lot in Washington, not sure such a person exist.
timthebrave
August 5th, 2011
2:24 pm
Republicans and democrats are both awful. Why do democrats and republicans vote only along party lines? Do they all think alike or are they just worried about getting money from their party to get re elected? hmmmmmm……
timthebrave
August 5th, 2011
2:26 pm
If we didn’t spend 1.2 trillion on war maybe we could have a balanced budget…..
Gwinnettian
August 5th, 2011
3:16 pm
This is really quite simple.
America will recover when we hire a Leader to lead us and we ‘drain the swamp’.
The problem has always been the Voter’s ability to choose that leader and identify exactly which people were the swamp. Making speeches is not a sign of Leadership – intergrity and experience are. Congress represents YOU!! Does your family have to trim its budget? – so should YOUR representative in Congress.
These are the principles of Conservatism. WE need to Conserve to survive. From the time of the Caveman to now. Its always the hard worker who works and saves who has the future. Its the ants and the grasshoppers…..how many comparisons can I draw?!
Road Scholar
August 5th, 2011
4:10 pm
Stop the whining. How do we get the economy reved up again?
In the past we did it partially with public Works where the government HIRED PRIVATE COMPANIES TO DO THE WORK! And we had something to show for it: better roads, bridges , airports, etc Those companies paid for materials, food, gasoline, wages…and thse in tern were passed along to other businesses…. Folks, that is trickle down, not the crap the tax breakers have spouted as trickle down…..sitting on their profits!
Oh, the uncertainty! Now for the onslaught from people who don’t understand or remember history!
tcurex
August 5th, 2011
4:15 pm
If the over 6 million unemployed who average getting nearly $300.00 per week were put back to work, the govt would save the $1,800,000,000 per week. The govt could reward the employer for each employee put to work and come out ahead by saving on one end and receiving taxes and social security payments on the other….
Don Nelson
August 5th, 2011
4:29 pm
Jobs will only be created when demand for products & services increase. Thanks to government directed Trade Agreements, we buy more imports made overseas than we sell in exports. So, in order to bring jobs back, the government can start by renegotiating the agreements it created that help start this entire mess of job losses. The started it, let them fix it. No one talks about this, but the government actually can stimulate job growth when our exports sales accelerate, until then….it is gonna be a long, long, long jobless recovery.
DeVante
August 5th, 2011
4:59 pm
“What do you think should be done? Tax cuts? Infrastructure spending? Let the free market runs it course?”
Bluto (to Flounder): “My advice to you is to start drinking heavily”.
tax more
August 5th, 2011
6:17 pm
taxes need to be raised on rich people and big corporations to get more money to pay all the government benefits. They better not cut my benefits.
James
August 5th, 2011
6:28 pm
No big surprise…small business are NOT hiring. They are not hiring because they do not trust the current administration’s policies and approaches.
James
August 5th, 2011
7:15 pm
Not even Bullwinkle can pull a rabbit out of this hat…
zeke
August 5th, 2011
8:25 pm
GET RID OF OBOZO AND ALL THE DEMOCRATS, RINOS AND THE OTHER LIBERALS, COMMIES, SOCIALIST, PROGRESSIVES AND INDEPENDENTS! THAT IS HOW YOU FIX THE ECONOMY AND STOP THE FEAR!
Amerigo M. Cimino
August 5th, 2011
9:02 pm
Jobs were “created”?
Whom” created’ the jobs?
More smoke and mirrors?
Who is supposed to be impressed by this job creation?
These reports are not without footnotes!
AND, We still have to press “1″ for English
Charles
August 5th, 2011
9:27 pm
askip32- You hit it on the nail!
Bob Walters
August 5th, 2011
11:43 pm
Send all illegal aliens packing and stop issuing work visas. Successfully pursue those two goals and enough jobs will be created for the unemployed to turn sentiment around.
Too Big to Fail
August 6th, 2011
6:16 am
Shut down Goldman Sachs for good.
Liz
August 6th, 2011
8:50 am
The illegals do the work nobody else will do!!! Why are the farmers suffering and restaurants have no dishwashers or food prep people. Wake up white or black people do not want to pick fruit or wash dishes!!!
Jon
August 6th, 2011
3:32 pm
Stabilize the economy by negating and abrogating unfair trade agreements which allow slave labor to make products imported into the USA. Duties on imported goods would offset the deficit while making american labor more attractive.
Financial fraud by large wall street banks must be dealt with, there must be punishments including fines and jail time to restore trust and justice to a system knee deep in fraud and corruption.
Glass-Stegall on steroids must be made law, investment banking and commercial banking are and should be separate institutions and legal structures along with commensurate regulation. Financial regulation and oversight must be disconnected from the entities they regulate. The revolving door must be cemented shut never to be reopened.
Real estate foreclosures must be properly handled and systems should be put into place to help struggling mortgagees make their payments and hold onto their properties, such as extending the terms of loans and offering payment moratoriums for set periods. No one benefits from the collapse of our housing markets so we must all swallow some bitter pills and stop giving sugar and cash to the banking industry which in many cases holds fraudulent titles to these properties.
The rich must pay their fair share to exist in fair and just social system otherwise it is anarchy and we saw what happened during the french revolution. The rich will push as far as they can it is after all in there best financial interest until it isn’t and they become public and private targets.
Our entire political structure needs to be renovated and replaced, our corrupt congress should be swept clean and if the political and social will is present, perhaps replacing our 2 party system with a more parlimentary system of fractional representation of multiple parties.
Destroy all television sets and force people to socialize together and discuss our common problems and how to resolve them.
destin dawg
August 7th, 2011
10:48 am
Jon.. that’s just babble…. specifics please….1 or 2 4 year term limits… tax reform… like flat or Vat …. Tort reform… cut the lawyers free the Doctors..( with in limits )… cut tax loop holes to raise revenue.. not increase taxes… tax amnesty for overseas corp. $$$$ IF it is reinvested in the U.S… require public service for wellfare… 6 months unemployment w/job training… etc…
Nativebird
August 7th, 2011
11:20 am
Please, enough with the politcal apologists. Government intrusion into national housing visa vi legislation called “community re-investment act”, and Government greasing called Freddie Mac, Sallie Mae not only baited banks to take the easy money, but forced banks by Law to give it out…by the boatloads.
Muliply this enormous free lunch by massive debt-spending under numerous administrations and at SOME point this chicken simply MUST come host to roost. And it has my friend. Blaming a party for this to award your political leanings is like the Titanic going down while the Captain and the boat builder blame each other.
The government MUST get out of awarding winners and losers, especially to those who are their political constuents (read poor, minority, dependent) is the only answer….because it is truly the only underlying problem.
Jon
August 7th, 2011
12:58 pm
Destin Dawg, really your post is just babble, There is not one coherent sentence in your entire post. I have laid out the high points of what must be done to return the United States to a stable and inclusive economy that will quell social unrest and provide an economic path for all to participate.
We don’t need a VAT or a national sales tax. We need rational trade policies, we need effective investment regulation, we need institutions that are fair and just and we need to prosecute those who violate the laws. Even if they are millionaires or billionaires.
We need to rebuild our factories and our infrastructure, there are jobs enough for everyone if we make our priority trading with each other instead of the whole world. A global race to the bottom destroys everyone except a thin layer of ultra rich who use their leverage to become wealthier by making everyone else poorer. It is a zero sum game.
Fair trade not free trade, effective regulation and taxes. Fraudulent bankers in jail. Jobs for Americans making things and doing things for other Americans. It’s not radical and its not that imaginative, all one needs is to look at recent history since the 1960’s. Leaving the gold standard, trickle down economics, repeal of Glass-Stegall, giving China favored Trade Status, these were all factors that led to our current demise and malaise.
We must fix our errors, we have tried things that not only didn’t work, but actively destroyed things that did work. It is time to undo our mistakes, before we run out of time and face a nation on the brink as the French did during the French Revolution. Contrast the American Revolution to the French Revolution to understand the fork in the road we are currently standing at.
Unions Now
August 8th, 2011
10:59 am
employees nationwide need to form more powerful unions to keep their jobs and benefits—greedy republicans and the tea party are trying to take away jobs, pensions and healthcare benefits and give the money to rich people and big corporations. I’m tired of this!