Two big issues

One is that State-protected coporations and government in America have led this country to the brink of financial disaster. Bernanke himself says our current direction is unsustainable, but Bernanke and the Fed are a large part of the problem. Even Obama has said it's unsustainable -- he's definitely a part of the problem.

The second issue is that more government intevention, spending and regulation are not the answers. You wouldn't ask Madoff to design a plan to prevent embezzlement. Our solution is to clean house in Washington DC, disempower the State and create a limited government and free market.

These two issues touch on every other issue we face -- welfare, war, unemployment, poor education, poverty, social clashes, environment concerns, energy needs, housing, debt, foreign relations, everything.

The American State, media, government, unions, universities, rent-seeking corporations, special interest groups of all kinds, has brought our country to a Come-to-Jesus moment -- we have to decide.

Do we go forward in statist self-destruction, or do we face the painful turn-around and reformation of the private sector and a free market? The pain that will be suffered by establishing a limited government and free market will be temporary, followed by long term growth and prosperity in a sane economy -- the destruction of statism will be fatal. The statist experiment is over -- it failed miserably -- it's time to change.

Goolsbee's inspiring evasion

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/13/goolsbee-get-used-to-high-unemployment/

As the saying goes -- When all else fails, lower your standards.

The saddest aspect of statism is the gradual lowering of standards, the slow loss of vision and the gradual acceptance of stagnation. An optimist who stood up and called for a return of innovation, energy, creativity and good old American ingenuity and industriousness would be called a delusional free marketer who thinks a free market is the answer to everything, then told to sit down and shut up as the grownups talk about long term unemployment and government stimulus to keep us from going into a depression.

Underestimation of dishonesty

When I wrote this, I believed the administration was backing off the idea of stimulus because of political pressure, but it appears I underestimated the dishonesty of the administration -- they haven't backed off the idea of stimulus to turn around the economy, they're simply going to break the second stimulus up into smaller pieces and call it infrastructure investment. I've written about the Orwellian tactic of shifting stimulus to "jobs/investmentl", but I didn't think Obama would go through with it on a large scale, just some tax tweaking here and there, but it appears now his plan is to push through several smaller stimulus packages to disguise the size of the total amount.

Putting people to work on highway and railroad projects will put some people to work and will be a boanaza for connected contractors who will inflate the costs, but it will do very little to create the kind of good-paying permanent jobs that will spur economic growth. This is a political ploy to help with the midterm elections for Democrats. If the administratio and congress had created a free market environment earlier on, these people put to work by the new stimulus would have already had better jobs. Plus, unless unemployment is allowed to expire, the new jobs will go unfilled, because it's hard work and the pay will likely not be attractive enough. If they raise the pay, then the cost of this construction will be exorbitant, pushing us further into debt, or creating higher taxes for the people who can generate permanent jobs, thereby cauisng these producers to not hire.

Besides, the first stimulus was supposed to contain funds for this type of job creation. This is all political manipulation with tax-payer money -- FDR-style interventions which will delay real recovery. This constant intervention in the economy and misdirection of capital is what has frozen economic growth in the first place - now they are going to intervene more.

Speaking of jobs

Many jobs going forward are going to require a very specific education to deal with the technological complexity, and I'm not sure enough kids are going in that direction. I see so many college graduates floating around with useless degrees, it makes me wonder if we will have to recruit overseas to fill jobs when the economy recovers.

On the other end of the spectrum, I don't see very many people trained to fix and repair stuff, or very many kids interested in going in that direction. I do, however, see a lot of unemployed young people.

There are also a lot of young people going to work for the government. These trends don't bode well for our future. Never before in the history of the world has a specialized education become so important and the degrees being manufactured so useless. Much of what kids learn in college can be learned on their own regarding history, art, philosophy, social studies, etc. What they can't learn on their own very easily is the knowledge required for hi-tech jobs. The high-paying jobs will require specialized knowledge, and this is hard work. The idea of going to college, having a good time and getting the easiest degree possible just to have a diploma is pretty much a waste of time and money. It might get you past the requirements for a governmet job, but we aren't going to be able to afford government jobs for much longer.

The build and repair jobs are always going to be in demand. I know how difficult it is to get someone dependable and good at what they do to repair things when they break. And builders are always having problems finding workers who can do a good job. After this recession is over, we might find a shortage of skilled labor, especially as people find government assistance a better option than working hard. Working hard at fixing and building things is considered beneath many kids nowadays, and it's because they don't realize how difficult it is to learn these trades and what it means to be a skilled tradesperson.

I know a lot of skilled fixers and builders who make more money than many lawyers, teachers or white-collar place-setters, and their work is honest and rewarding. Respect for builders and fixers should be re-established -- the nation needs good help, and people need good jobs that actually get something done that's important.

Economy continues to deteriorate

Reuters does its best to make this a neutral report, but even its best polling efforts can't make this pig look like anything but a pig.

The idea that the stimulus has kept the economy from getting worse is a tired, limping idea. There is also the possibility that what the administration and congress has done has prevented recovery from taking place. This is the most likely scenario. There just isn't enough evidence to prove the administration's claim, but there is plenty of evidence that the economy is getting worse when it should be getting much better. Housing news today was terrible.

Unemployment is getting worse. Businesses are frozen, scared to make a move when they have no way of knowing what costly legislation will passed next, and what the costly legislation already passed will actually cost. You don't have to be an economist to know that the trillion dollars the government spent on stimulus has not had the intended effect, and, in fact, it likely hurt private businesses, because now they have that much less to invest, even if they wanted to -- but like I said, until government sends a signal it's not going to do anything else stupid, businesses have to assume it will.