New York Times Editorial: We Need More Stimulus Spending
By Susie Madrak Sunday Nov 08, 2009 2:00pm
The Times is obviously trying to jump-start the political process that makes our elected representatives so reluctant to go back and ask for more badly-need stimulus spending from the federal government:
The unemployment rate includes only jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. The underemployment rate — which also includes jobless workers who have not recently looked for work and part-timers who need full-time work — reached 17.5 percent in October. And the long-term unemployment rate — the share of the unemployed population out of work for more than six months — also continues to set records. It is now 35.6 percent.
The official job-loss data also fail to take note of 2.8 million additional jobs needed to absorb new workers who have joined the labor force during the recession. When those missing jobs are added to the official total, the economy comes up short by 10.1 million jobs.
Taken together, the numbers paint this stark picture: At no time in post-World War II America has it been more difficult to find a job, to plan for the future, or — for tens of millions of Americans — to merely get by.
At a recent meeting at the White House to discuss job creation, President Obama said that “bold, innovative action,” would be needed — from the administration, Congress and the private sector — to undo the devastation in the labor market. Americans are waiting for Mr. Obama to lead the way.
There were good ideas floated at the White House meeting, including bolstered federal support for efforts to retrofit and weatherize homes and public buildings. There was also talk of using government money to establishing a so-called infrastructure bank that would issue bonds to help finance big construction projects.
The country also needs a program that would create jobs for teenagers — ages 16 to 19 — whose unemployment rate is currently a record 27.6 percent. Deep and prolonged unemployment among the young is especially worrisome. It means they do not have a chance, and may never get the chance, to acquire needed skills, permanently hobbling their earnings potential.
We know that more stimulus spending and government programs are a fraught topic. But they are exactly what the country needs. It may be the only way to prevent a renewed downturn. And the only way to create the jobs needed to put Americans back to work. Those are the essential — and missing — ingredients of a sustained recovery.
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I find that ad to date Russian women to be quite stimulating.
... maybe the interwebs know I am married already?
these days. If you can get it.
"Dems need to not be shy about second stimulus"
I'd have preferred a bigger (and only) first stimulus, but...
and a World War to drag us out of the mess Hoover got us into. How long will this take and will it include a global conflict?
Become an entrepreneur or you'll wait forever.
its only a stimulus if it is aimed at the right sectors of the economy, includes meaningful reform, and strengthens financial regulations.
if not. it is yet another giveaway to those that created the crisis from those that continue to suffer.
Carly Fiorina. California U.S. Senate Candidate
Since no one has money left to invest. Get yourself into jobs which will be needed no matter what and do whatever it takes to keep those jobs. EMT, grocery store as a check-out clerk, state unemployment office.
A bright future
You start out playing bar gigs. Then sell out stadiums. Then go back to playing bar gigs again when people have tired of you and aren't buying your records anymore.
The party of GrOuPthink has no problem creating massive deficits on a BS war and unethical profiteers but hates to aid middle class Americans (see Katrina, health care, extending unemployment benefets). Dem dogs and Obama better wake up fast. Republicans want you to fail and the rest of us to suffer.
the gov can spend trillions in a stimulus, but unless we start building stuff again...we are doomed
we are looking at the end of the great american empire
we are there......
the 29ers live in another reality
the rest of us refuse to make the hard decisions
or get our asses off the couch.
ennui and sloth are the sad state of America.
when the gop governors, senators and house repres start
with their usual bs about not passing another stimulus
bill, then we should encourage everyone out of work or
can not find a job to move and descend on those gopers
states, because we all know only the gopers have the answers.
they must be the only ones in the money and have enough
jobs available for everyone.......
the gop has no empathy and should bear the burden
for this fiasco they helped create.
move to a gopers state and you still won't make a livable wage or be able to afford healthcare insurance but you will qualify for the premium subsidy.
I'm sure the GOPer's have a simple solution. Start another war and all the unemployed, or mostly the ones who came into the job market in the past year or so can join the military to fight said war. The military industrial complex wins, the unemployed win. The only down side is all the dead people. But then again, the coffin makers also win.
Problem solved.
in Australia, Kevin Rudd found that the more your give to the stimulus, the better you'll get. Our country is heading back along the right road at this point.
A lot can be done without spending a lot of money. We can provide corporate america with low cost loans and long term taxes breaks for large capital projects. Many of the bridges are falling apart. They can be repaired or replaced. A lot of this can be finance by tolls. Government buildings could be made more energy efficent. The cost of this would be paid for by energy savings. We need transmisson lines to support renewable energy. Paid for by transmission tolls.
The blueprint was made in the 1930's. We know what works and what doesn't. To do any different is insanity.
Why on earth would we sink another dime into stimulus funds, without knowing which banks are zombie banks, and why credit isn't flowing? Another bailout is a bullshit, delaying tactic until that is known ...which just prevents the government from standing up to the banks.
and you idiots don't listen...
But, I'm feeling generous tonight so, let's try this again:
First, computer skills will be of little consequence in 25 years. If the youth of america want to learn skills learn the following REALLY WELL:
1. plumbing
2. solar electrical installation and maintenance
3. permacultural farming
4. insulation and home renovation for energy efficiency
5. bicycle and electric-assist bicycle and tricycle manufacture, maintenance and repair
6. analogue radio repair
7. Leatherwork and Cobbling. Yes, making and repairing shoes. Esp. boots.
8. Equestria. Not making horses jump through hoops. Making horses that can pull plows and do work. In the meantime, train them to jump through hoops for the ruling class, but focus on breeding "big ones" clydesdales, etc...
The dream is over. What can I say?
THIS is why:
http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/5859
make plans or have them made for you.
from raw story.com:
12/15/08:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_Administra...
by John Byrne
And it is called the Surface Transportation Authorization Act - it was proposed by Jim Oberstarr and it is a $450 billion spending authorization for transportation infrastructure over the next 5 years. Take that and package it with spending on the energy grid and home energy efficiency and we can start really putting people back to work. Money doesn't trickle down, it trickles up. Give people jobs and things to do and they will ultimately reinvest in the economy.
Bull. Country needs a jobs program for ADULTS so those unemployed teenagers still have their parent's houses to live in. It's "Let them eat cake" as usual inside the D.C. Beltway because "things aren't really that bad" (Hey, the stock market is up!).
But, really, what they are doing is using the word "teenager" as a polite metaphor for minimum-wage dead-end slave labor jobs for America, right?
Unemployment under Reagan approached 11% at its peak, so I think. At that time unemployment was the standard 26 weeks (or 30 in some states) and a 13-15 week federal extension. Now, we have unemployment lasting more than a year, so I'm betting that people are being counted that would have dropped off the rolls under Reagan and not been counted. From a political point of view, the latest unemployment extension is a two-edged sword for the Democrats, because keeping people on the rolls longer likely will hike the unemployment statistics, which then can be used by the Republicans.
My sense is, from an unemployment standpoint, the Reagan recession was worse, at least so far.
by all means print more dollars to compensate for the money we don't have. It's called a "Federal Reserve Note", a note of credit. Every dollar printed is the US borrowing more. The dollars value is not falling by accident nor is Gold and Silvers price climbing by accident. It's the contrast between price and value. This is like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion.
Look at the monetary base chart and see where we started last Sept and have come to.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/usfd/page3.pdf
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