In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Things Are Not O.K." (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/opinion/krugman-things-are-not-ok.html?hp), Krugman observes that the economy is still deeply depressed and that high unemployment is causing great damage to "our economy and our society, even if the unemployment rate is gradually declining." Krugman writes:
"As the Economic Policy Institute points out, we started 2012 with fewer workers employed than in January 2001 — zero growth after 11 years, even as the population, and therefore the number of jobs we needed, grew steadily. The institute estimates that even at January’s pace of job creation it would take us until 2019 to return to full employment.
. . . .
Bear in mind, in particular, the fact that long-term unemployment — the percentage of workers who have been out of work for six months or more — remains at levels not seen since the Great Depression.
. . . .
Full employment is still a distant dream — and that’s unacceptable. Policy makers should be doing everything they can to get us back to full employment as soon as possible."
Although full employment in today's brave new world will probably prove illusive, policy makers should indeed be doing more to encourage recovery. And that means, for example, reenactment of Glass-Steagall, in order to force commercial banks to focus again on the business of lending money to worthy individuals and businesses.
That means reenactment of the Uptick Rule, so that the shares of start-up corporations cannot be manipulated by financial institutions seeking quick profits at the expense of the financial strength of these companies, upon whose growth America's economic future rests (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2011/12/stock-market-manipulation-new-shorting.html).
And yes -- this is where Krugman and I certainly part ways -- it means the development of oil shale fracking in a safe responsible manner, and moving ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline, even with the environmental risks it entails.
Like it or not, the US needs to "declare war" on unemployment while reducing its dependence upon oil from barbarous Middle East regimes, and sometimes this entails unseemly compromises.
There is a new double-speak: "job-creation" is a euphemism for "spending" and "fracking" and "Keystone Pipeline" are code language for "you won't get elected when the environmentalists get through with you." The "Uptick Rule" is code for "cumbersome regulation."
ReplyDeleteThe new dictionary will, hopefully, be put back on the shelf after the election.
Ah, environmentalists ... It's time to quote from my letter to a former friend who wanted me to come to Washington ... again (she previously had wanted me to come to an Answer rally - ME!?):
ReplyDelete"No ...., the Flotilla jet set which flew last month in jets and was driven in limousines to Washington to … protect the rights of Arab nations to oil monopoly is not for me either and not only because I do not have millions of air miles, millions of car miles, millions in banks and millions in heating bills"