Posted by Michael A. Kamperman on August 19, 2010
With weekly jobless claims climbing back to the 500k level, the time has come for President Obama to convene a Jobs Summit. Mysteriously jobs continue not to be the primary focus of the Whitehouse. The strategy of kicking the can down the road hoping for a natural recovery in the economy has failed. But who should be invited to the Summit? Any citizen in America who wants to share an idea should be invited. The Summit should start out as a series of smaller regional Summits. Then, those presenting credible ideas should be invited to the Washington Summit. Let economists, CEOs, Congressman, and anyone else who wants to contribute ideas attend a regional Summit, and if they have a credible idea, then invite them to the Washington Summit. The reason for this concept is to decentralize the voices our President and Congresional leaders hear from. The advisers they currently have have taken us nowhere. There are plenty of good ideas, but unless someone is connected their voice is never heard in Washington.
For example, Bill Gross is getting a lot of credit for coming forward with a proposal to use Fannie Mae to refinance any current mortgage already guaranteed by the government without an appraisal. This is a great idea and it will help stabilize the housing market and put diposable income into the hands of numerous consumers. The only thing is the idea has been out there for well over a year. On page 105 of How America Can Escape the New Great Depression it says “Fannie Mae should also refinance any mortgage in good standing without an appraisal.” The book was published in March of 2009. Imagine where things might be if the idea were implemented back then. What other idea is out there that can’t get through the filters?
The Summit should be televised and hosted by the President and the Congressional leadership. The American people should see and here these ideas. Some ideas will rise to the top and gain broad-based support. The politicians will not control the ideas presented and will have difficulty spinning them. There should be a bi-partisan agreement between Democrats and Republicans that no idea will be dead on arrival just because it involves cutting or increasing taxes or spending. The objective of the Summit is to get something positive done as opposed to the usual Washington grid-lock where two sides shout at each other and accomplish little. Make no mistake, in a depression grid-lock is a bad thing. I’ll throw out another idea right now. Starting in 2014, let’s place a tarrif on all products made outside the U.S. if the employees do not receive health care. It is crazy to let countries like China ship products into America made by workers who are on their own for healthcare when the corresponding American competitor is required to provide health-care. It’s just crazy for us not to insist on a level playing field.
Posted by Michael A. Kamperman on July 3, 2010
Nobel Prize winning Economist Paul Krugman has ended the unchallengeable mantra that we have avoided the risks of another Great Depression by claiming in his liberal leaning New York Times column that he believes we have already entered a new depression. He is an expert on global trade and on the Japanese depression of the last two decades. Yet our chronically tin eared President declared after a widely agreed upon disappointing unemployment report by both the right and the left that “make no mistake — we are headed in the right direction.” About the only other thing the left and the right agree upon is that make no mistake-we are NOT heading in the right direction. After that the road forks. President Obama has failed to heed the pleas of those begging for job creation policies and for jobs to become the number one issue on his agenda. Every few months he says jobs is now number one and then jobs quickly move to the back burner. Well the chickens are coming home to roost. Rather than hailing the drop in the unemployment rate from 9.7% to 9.5%, the media is highlighting that this only occurred because 652,000 people dropped out of the work force. The country has soured on smoke and mirrors and wants substance. President Obama praised Senator Robert Byrd as someone with “quintessential American quality, and that is a capacity to change, a capacity to learn, a capacity to listen, a capacity to be made more perfect.” Hopefully President Obama will gain the capacity to listen because we desperately need a change in economic policies.
The President’s tin ear resulted in his being summarily dismissed in his calls for more European stimulus spending and ended up with the G-20 agreeing to halve their budget deficits by 2013. The President has not championed extending stimulus spending at home for 2011 and he plans to raise taxes by letting both the stimulus tax cuts and the Bush tax cuts expire. What he has championed is a bi-partisan deficit cutting commission. Leaders need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. The reason the President is desperate for Europe to continue to spend is his whole plan to restore the U.S. economy depends on exports. Many of his economic advisers believe the U.S. doesn’t need a vibrant housing market, or vibrant consumers. They believe we need to be more like China and focus on manufacturing and exports. Hopefully the President ”listened and learned” that we can’t export our way to prosperity because there are no buyers out there. We need to recreate demand here. To build a home in America one needs to be physically in America.
By spending the last year with a tin ear the President has squandered any chance to push fiscal policies through the Congress that will make a meaningful economic difference. This failure to fight for jobs every day has consequences. For many they will lose their job or their business. For the President, he will lose the large majorities he enjoyed in Congress and he may lose any majority at all. After only one and a half years the President is heading towards long-term lame duck status. This prediction will become a certainty unless the President gains the “quintessential American quality, and that is a capacity to change, a capacity to learn, a capacity to listen, a capacity to be made more perfect.” The reason the deficit is so large is because we have so many people hurting. The President needs to call for a plan that leaves no unemployed person behind. He needs to say that every willing and able person in America that wants a job will get one, preferably from the private sector but also from the public sector if need be. He needs to say the way to cut our deficit is not through austerity, but through growth. He needs to say we need to look to ourselves to solve our problems and not to others. He needs to fund this Jobs for Every-One program with printed money and continue to print money to fund the program until the budget deficit reaches a sustainable target of less than 3%. Working people pay taxes, pay mortgages, and don’t collect unemployment benefits. Can you listen Mr. President? Can you learn Mr. President? Can you change?
Posted by Michael A. Kamperman on January 20, 2010
Main Street Massachusetts just sent Washington a loud and clear message; they’re worried about their jobs, they’re worried about their homes, and they’re worried about their 401(K)’s. This election came down to kitchen table issues. Every poll shows the number one issue Americans are concerned about is jobs, not healthcare. The Whitehouse has been tone-deaf and has had tunnel vision in trying to pass a healthcare bill, any healthcare bill almost no matter what is in it. Scott Brown did not surge in the polls because the people of Massachusetts don’t want the country to have some form of universal healthcare. The state already has its own version of state funded universal healthcare and it is popular in Massachusetts. Scott Brown surged in the polls because the people of Massachusetts, along with the rest of the country, believe the Whitehouse is more interested in the jobs of bankers on Wall Street rather than their jobs on Main Street. Unemployment is still rising. Foreclosures are still rising. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is where it was a decade ago. Yet instead of hearing the President say he will put America back to work, they hear him say we know unemployment will rise further before it starts to come down. Amazingly, President Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression and he has squandered his opportunity to be the next FDR by failing to focus on the people’s concerns. The question is does he get the message?
The Democrats were already playing the blame game before the polls closed. It’s true Martha Coakley was neither a dynamic candidate nor a good campaigner. But there was no scandal or significant local issue in the race and there is no doubt Scott Brown’s 25 point surge in 25 days was about Washington, not Coakley. Hopefully President Obama will hear the real message and not believe his own supporters spin. Last night I was watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC say “the unemployment rate in Massachusetts is only 8.8% and while that sucks it is a lot better than the rest of the country and it shouldn’t be a big factor in the outcome of the election.” In the past an unemployment rate of 8.8% was certainly high enough to get an incumbent booted from office and Martha Coakley represented the ruling Democrats. Plus, the 8.8% unemployment rate in Massachusetts is based on throwing thousands of people out of the workforce. The real rate is probably in 10’s. Rachel Maddow doesn’t get it, the President’s advisers don’t get it, but hopefully the President will see the wheels have come off the tracks and he will alter the trajectory of his Presidency.
If I were advising the President I would tell him to pivot to jobs now, right now, today. He should come forward and say the number one job, the number two job, and the number three job of his Administration is to get America back to work. I would advise him to ignore concerns about the deficit and to come forward with a one trillion dollar major jobs bill that includes an emphasis on investments in infrastructure, education, and research and development. He should say America has the number one economy in the world and these investments are designed to keep America number one for the rest of the 21st Century. I would advise him to state unequivocally that we will not only bring aid to Haiti, we will rebuild Haiti creating American and Haitian jobs. If we can rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, then we can rebuild Haiti. In short, the President should come forward and talk about our possibilities, not about our limitations. Massachusetts is sending a message the people have lost confidence with the direction of the country. The President needs to signal he gets the message loud and clear.
