Posts Tagged ‘economy’
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Now that the stimulus spending is winding down (note to critics of stimulus spending, who said it didn’t do anything: if it didn’t do any good, why is the loss of it endangering the recovery?), the job market is looking grim again. For reasons I can’t quite fathom in this oddest of election years, neither party seems to have much to say about the number one issue in the polls: jobs. The Dems know that they can’t pass anything right now, but instead of trying to get a big jobs bill through, and forcing the GOP to defend the indefensible, they seem to have given up. The Republicans are all about one issue only–extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, because it’s not a good idea to raise taxes in a recession, although it’s hard to know who will be hurt by taking a bit more from really rich people, and on the discredited theory that keeping the tax cuts will create jobs, (note to GOP: where are all the jobs that the tax cut was supposed to produce in the first place?).
In the meantime, the millions without work can spend their days waiting for the economy to tank again and looking for jobs that don’t exist, or worrying about a mosque in New York or immigrants taking the jobs that don’t exist in Arizona.
On that Islamic Center issue, I just returned from a few days in New York, where nobody I met was talking about the Ground Zero mosque (note to readers: it’s a community center, not a mosque, and it’s not at Ground Zero) even though Rupert Murdoch’s Post was doing its lurid best to keep up with his Fox News and make an election issue of it. I’m convinced the only politician in America with any courage at all is Mayor Bloomberg (a Republican), who is still standing firm on the principle of freedom of religion.
Topics: cartoon, economy, employment, jobs, opinion, recession, unemployment | 4 Comments »
Monday, July 19th, 2010
Financial reform actually passed. Another victory for Obama, despite the furious objection of the other party and their Wall Street masters. Much too late, of course, and not strong enough, but at least they’re turning the Titanic slowly away from the deregulatory daze that got us into this mess in the first place. That’s little solace to those of us who have watched our investments dwindle. We could use a little old-fashioned irrational exuberance. Where’s the next bubble going to come from if Wall Street is held accountable? I’m going to have to go back to making money the old-fashioned way, by working for it. And I don’t like it one bit. Let’s have one more round of insanely inflated stock prices. This time I’ll get out when I have enough to retire, and I won’t care when the inevitable bust comes. Then you can regulate all you want. Sound like a plan?
Topics: 401(k), banks, cartoon, Congress, economy, financial reform, opinion, stock market, Wall Street | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Once again, I’m perplexed by the inability of the Senate to do what has always been routine–extend unemployment benefits during a recession. I’m equally perplexed by the silence from the White House on the issue–Obama should be out there every day demanding that the benefits be extended, and chiding Republicans and recalcitrant Democrats for their inaction, which compounds the cruelty of this deep economic hole we’re in. Americans should be outraged that our politics have become so dysfunctional that the people who’ve lost their jobs are held hostage to satisfy the electoral aspirations of a few.
Topics: cartoon, Congress, economy, jobs, opinion, Senate, unemployment benefits | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
I somehow failed to post this last week. It went out to my syndicate, but I forgot to put it on the site. So, you get a twofer today.
The churning of industries and jobs is often referred to as the creative destruction of capitalism. While the loss of an industry is often a local disaster, the theory is that new technologies make new industries and jobs available, although not necessarily for the people who’ve been displaced. That’s a fine theory, but the reality of the last decade is that no net new jobs were created. The middle class saw its wages and benefits shrink, while health care costs ate up an increasing share of our income. The internet certainly had a hand in some of that destruction, wreaking havoc on any number of industries, my own included.
Topics: book publishing, economy, gaming, internet, jobs, magazines, newspapers, opinion, recording industry, retailing | 4 Comments »
Monday, February 1st, 2010
Medical marijuana shops are cropping up all over the place. We all know, of course, that this is a total sham; it’s a way to legalize marijuana while pretending that we’re doing it for purely ethical reasons. We won’t admit that the prohibition of ganja was as effective as the prohibition of alcohol, so we save face this way. But why stop there? There are equally good uses for dope, and times like these call for a little creativity. Here’s one way to expand the use of marijuana, also for humanitarian purposes.
Topics: economy, foreclosure, marijuana, medical marijuana, opinion, recession, unemployment | 2 Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
I’m no fan of Christmas shopping, but the last thing this struggling economy needed was a huge blizzard wiping out crucial shopping days in some of the largest markets in the country. It’s depressing to think that the only quick way out of this recession is for rampant consumerism to come roaring back. What I want for Christmas is for everyone to shop until they drop. And would it be too much to ask that you tell the storekeepers you saw their ads in the newspaper?
Topics: blizzard, Christmas, Christmas sales, economy, recession, retail sales, snow | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 7th, 2009
With job creation at the top of the economic wish list as the nation slowly recovers from the deep recession, and with the Afghanistan decision made, Obama last week convened a jobs summit. The truth is, and everyone knows it, there’s little more that can be done to create the millions of jobs needed to offset those lost the last two years, unless the government is willing to spend billions more on additional stimulus. This puts Obama in a precarious place; does he risk adding to the already huge deficit, risking runaway inflation down the road, or does he stand pat and hope the economy creates more jobs than anticipated? Perhaps intervention from another agency will save the day. It can’t hurt to ask. “Tis the season.
Topics: Afghanistan, Christmas, climate change, economy, employment, health care, jobs, Obama, recession | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
I had some qualms about drawing this one. I toyed with a number of Thanksgiving themes–the president pardoning the turkey, the Thanksgiving feast, both contemporary and historical, linking these images with other events like the Afghanistan decision or Wall Street bonuses–but I decided against them. Too predictable or too familiar. I ended up doing this one, mostly because even though it’s a downer, it’s closer to what I think is the underlying truth about the time we’re in right now. Over the past few decades we’ve squandered much of our wealth and our economic security, and I don’t think we’ll be going back to what we had anytime soon. Wall Street greed is only partly to blame. We built an economy on cheap imported consumer goods, and watched passively as manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas, salaries retreated, and the middle class stagnated while the wealthiest piled up unprecedented riches. As the bitter partisan divide became an unbridgeable chasm, we kicked difficult choices like Medicare, Social Security and health care reform down the road. And here we are, with a shattered economy, a fragile recovery leaving huge unemployment in its wake, and a holiday season upon us that promises little cheer for retailers or consumers. Happy Thanksgiving.
Topics: cornucopia, economy, recession, Thanksgiving | 2 Comments »
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
I join the growing chorus of critics who don’t believe that Obama has focused enough on job creation. In fact, I’m more than a little disappointed in the tepid performance by Democrats in general. They won the election by large margins, yet they seem afraid to lead. The Republicans have been successful at all kinds of stalling tactics on judicial nominees (remember the outraged demand by Republicans for an up and down vote for Bush’s nominees?), many other appointments, climate change legislation, and the despicable tactics being employed against health care reform. Yet Democrats don’t seem to have the stomach for a real fight.
It will take political courage to spend the money needed for more stimulus aimed at job creation in the face of rising deficits, yet that’s exactly what most economists think we need. I also seem to remember the mantra that deficits don’t matter, when Bush was racking them up; evidently they only matter when Democrats control the White House. Yet the Dems apparently are afraid of the consequences if they actually get out in front of controversial legislation. As a good friend of mine, a recently-elected Colorado legislator, reminded me the other day, people don’t vote to re-elect legislators who do nothing, and they especially don’t re-elect cowards.
Let’s have some backbone, people. Do something.
Topics: economy, employment, jobs, Obama, recession, Thanksgiving, unemployment | 5 Comments »
Thursday, November 5th, 2009
What a difference a year makes, especially when the economy is bad. The independents, who went so heavily for Obama in 2008, swung back the other way in New Jersey and Virginia. The experts are mixed on whether this is an early sign of weakness for the Democrats or whether it’s the usual dissatisfaction with the party in power during an economic slowdown, compounded by weak candidates in both races. I think it’s a little of both. We are an impatient people, used to instant gratification. Obama, in office for ten months, has clearly not had time to undo all of the damage of the last eight years, but I say it’s time to move on and hold him responsible for the state of the economy. While we’re at it, I have some other things to blame him for.
Topics: baseball, economy, elections, New York, Obama, Wall Street, Yankees | 32 Comments »
