Here is a graphic that shows how unemployment has progressed from January 2007 to September of this year. One thing that caught my eye was that the Great Plains states are doing better than the others.
But, on the coasts and in the Midwest there is no good new.
The question is, do we go with Keynesian economics one more time (another stimulus package) or just extend unemployment benefits? Which is the path out?
Regards — Cliff
8 comments:
The Plains region's economy is based on much more stable "industry."
Like the ecoterrorists, the unemployment mania is I think being a bit overblown. While I don't deny that there is some considerable pain out there, it is not because of the economy per se. Rather it is from a decade of increasing costs on production and literally forcing it off shore. You don't have jobs because you don't have work and you don't have work because the means of production have largely departed.
We don't need any more taxes, we don't need any more government regulation, we sure don't need any more stimuli.
We need to have everybody back off and allow a free market to do what it has done for many moons....create wealth and create jobs. When wealth becomes excessive, the working class revolts and things come back in line.
Folks who sit on the toilet and ponder these sorts of things for extended amounts of time need to put the entire process in systems terms and systems left to their own device tend to move toward a natural balance dictated by their component parts and the nature of same.
We need to panic about bigger things......like...did Sarah Palin ghost write her book? Is Duval Patrick really a closet conservative? Is The One really a Hawaian? Will a giant asteroid hit the planet in 2012 and turn us all into galactic gas?
Regards,
Neal
(I sincerely hate typos...)
Nobody lives in those remaining yellow areas, so that's all pretty much moot.
I disagree completely with Neal about where we are with our "unemployment mania". Watching how closely our current unemployment trend more or less identically matches that following the crash of '29, it's hard not to think long and hard about what happened in '30, '31, '32, etc. (i.e. 25% unemployment).
Our current attempts at "fixes", from Wall Street bailouts to "Cash for Clunkers", are all huge resource sinkholes. The free market's response to this cannot help but drag us even further into an extended period of malaise and, yes, continued unemployment.
The recent Saturday Night Live skit parodying Obama's conversations with Hu Jintao is so funny because it is so true. Our creditors will soon, as those in Dubai, demand payment on these debts we're racking up, and, frankly, we cannot afford to repay them.
This is far, far, far from over.
It took me doing the tear and compare on the two comments before I found the typo.
Good job, Kad.
Regards — Cliff
We have policies that penalize work - if you work:
a) you pay income taxes
b) you pay payroll taxes
c) you pay health care costs
d) your company pays corporate taxes
e) your company pays payroll taxes
f) your company (probably) pays health care costs
g) your company pays unemployment taxes and workman's compensation fees
We would be better off if those costs were paid from sales, so that companies like Walmart would pay the same amount as companies that produced things in the US. And Evergreen Solar may find it better to leave its assembly work at Devens.
Going to give this a go one more time as I tried to post......and it went to a galaxy far far away....which I am sure many folks swear is where I am from.
In re my label of "unemployment mania" perhaps deserves some explanation or qualification...or both. I am speaking much more of the politisization (hope that is really a word..and forgive the probable misspelling) of the situation.
I could not agree more with Kad Barbma on the post 29 similarities. In fact, I would venture that we are much closer to identical than similar...but of course the MSM and the Administration don't want to go there.
The Free Market will work...but first we have to get the means of production back on American soil. Even our vaunted Boeing relies on a major percentage of off shore component suppliers to make their airliners....which gave me a bit of wry laughter when they screamed foul when the DoD was going to give Airbus the KC X contract because they were a "foreign manufacturer." I recall a commentary I read a few years ago in which the author observed that the only thing the US "produced" were "financial products," ie, we'd become an economy of paper hangers....and very little more.
Again, the free market WILL work....but at the moment...it ain't free.....and there isn't much market....and of course...the Congress and the Administration are hell-bent on implementing measures that will probably prevent its reemergence ever again.
Yes.....China will call its loans soon...its a means of conquest....they learned their lessons well from those Sicilians....and of course....the Tong.
I must also comment that in the post 29 years, we were not nearly $13T in debt. We've been deluding ourselves for decades. The so-called "balanced budget" that the Clintonistas bragged about when they handed the reins to Bush was a charade. They didn't mention interest on debt.
We are just so screwed.
Regards,
Neal
Joe suggests we change our tax structure.
I am wondering if he is talking about a Value Added Tax, a VAT, like they have in the UK and Europe. Or is this just a straight sales tax? Either way, this is not to be dismissed out of hand. It is a good way, as Joe demonstrates, of helping to keep jobs here.
One of the things I worry about with a Sales Tax or a VAT is that it will be slipped in there and the older taxes, like income tax and sales tax and all those little charges, will just remain and it will become one more hidden tax that passes below the radar.
The other question I have is if this means we will not tax products we manufacture for export. A tempting revenue stream, but it would up the price of the finished product and make it harder to compete.
However, as Neal says in his articulate way, "We are just so screwed."
We need to get the deficit under control and that means that all of us are going to have to tighten our belts a bit.
I want to be a good Republican and say no new taxes, but I want to be a good Tea Party goer and say no spending without offsetting revenue. My only fear is that with new taxes legislators will decide there is enough of a margin to pass new spending. So, we have to get spending under control, and that will be hard. In the mean time, a new tax system might help stimulate the economy. It is worth a try. What we are doing now does not seem to be working.
Regards — Cliff
How is it in China? India? The Indian economy is growing at 17% (not authoritative) while Obama is killing out businesses. Extending unemployment benefits keeps people out of the workforce. We need a way to convince the out of work to accept a lower calling, at least for awhile.
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