Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Mike Whitney, Let's Get Fiscal

This isn't the time for hemming-and-hawing. Obama should be using his clout to launch a trillion dollar "Get America Back to Work" campaign with all the public relations rigmarole to go along with it. 17.5 percent "real" unemployment is only part of the story, too. There's also 300,000-plus foreclosures every month, record personal bankruptcies, plummeting state revenues, and countless maxed out homeless shelters and food banks. We're in the throes of a low-grade depression that requires emergency mobilization aimed at expanding the public workforce and increasing wage-and-benefits packages to spark greater demand. The states should be given open-ended funding to cover losses in annual tax revenue as long as they agree to an across-the-board firing freeze for all state and local employees. Government resources should be provided in block grants to states for green technology, infrastructure projects, foreclosure relief, low income housing, and public health care facilities. Whatever it takes to rev up the industrial flywheel that keeps the economy purring; Do it!


His analysis of what happened and what's been done so far seems to be sound; I can't see why I should agree with his recommendations though.

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