Economics has caused me to lose my hair. The daily barrage of economic numbers, predictions, and commentary just makes me scratch my head. I didn’t go to Harvard so I guess I don’t have the capacity to get it. Everyone is heralding recovery, but Americans are still losing their jobs. That’s to be expected they say, since jobs are a lagging indicator. What? I’m sorry but that answer is no longer acceptable.
Obama and his team of economic geniuses are slapping themselves on the back for doing such a great job with the economy. They saved us from a second great depression. Wall Street rejoices over a 19% increase in stock prices in 2009 and predicts a profitable 2010. BUT THERE ARE NO JOBS. Sometimes I hate economics.
Our politicians need to hear this refrain, “it’s about jobs, stupid!” They celebrate when job losses are fewer than expected. The last report on unemployment insurance claims for the month was 432,000. This was wonderful because Wall Street predicted 452,000. The politicians are falling over themselves to take credit for this encouraging trend.
Here’s what is funny about economics. If that report had shown 462,000 claims filed, the stock market would have crumbled and the politicians would be finger pointing. Their whole discussion centers on the 20,000 that did not file. Do you realize this 20,000 number is imaginary? There is only one real number in this report – 432,000 authentic, flesh and blood Americans are added to the rolls of the unemployed. This should sicken our leaders.
The politicians need to wake up to one other lagging indicator – the people’s confidence. Obama said at the signing of the first stimulus bill that unemployment would not go beyond 8%. When it quickly exceeded the 8% his response was that he did not realize just how bad a job George W. Bush had done. Too bad there are no real reporters to ask probing questions anymore. A good one at that point would have been, “Mr. President, what real numbers or facts have come to light since you have taken office to support that comment?”
At the first of December Obama had a “jobs summit”. A day for all the geniuses to discuss the unemployment problem. At the time, I wondered about the purpose of this meeting since we were in recovery and jobs, as we know, are a lagging indicator. I think they wanted to show us how serious they were about finding solutions, a PR show. Of course, no ideas or answers came out. I found it interesting that there was enough wealth in that room to create thousand of jobs, but that idea was probably not offered.
Honestly, I do believe they care about jobs. They just don’t know what to do. I don’t think they can do much. Bill Clinton still raves about all that he did for the economy during the 90′s. I laugh at this because he didn’t do squat. Bill Gates created thousand jobs and millionaires to boot during the 90′s. Thank him and hundreds of other business owners who gave us a great decade of economic prosperity.
My advice to Obama and the rest of the Washington crowd is to admit the government’s impotence to quickly solve the jobs problem. The one thing they can do is listen. Spend time doing some door to door work among the small businesses who have laid off workers recently. Find out what it would take for them to hire more workers. Entrepreneurs must feel confident to take risks. Leadership should inspire confidence, even when the ship is sinking.
Tags: jobs, jobs summit, lagging indicator, unemployment