Fundamentals of the economy, oversight, regulation, Lehman Brothers, subprime loans, tranches - you think Joe and Jenny Sixpack know or care what any of those words mean? Low-info voters know that something is rotten in our economy, but they don't know enough or care enough about stock tickers and which investment group has imploded for the week. What do they see in their lives? Factories closing, streets lined with run-down houses that nobody will buy, and rich people on Wall Street making millions of dollars doing - well, doing what? What exactly do they do besides move money around? The subprime mess has all the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme because it WAS/IS a pyramid scheme. Everybody can understand that. And everybody should be pissed about that.
So, as Obama and Biden struggle to craft a simple, concise, and clear message for themselves on the economy (meaning a proactive push on the economy instead of just pointing out that McCain is out of touch), let me suggest this angle: America is no longer a country of producers. Instead we are a country of investors. Goods and services are tangible and understandable. We can all measure our nation's wealth by cataloging the health of our industries. How do we measure our wealth when that wealth is defined as subprime tranches sold to an investor in Norway, sold to a village in Germany, sold off and off and off to the point that nobody knows who owns it? Nobody knows the bottom of this economic downturn because nobody knows how worthless these investments are. Pyramid scheme. At some point, the pyramid collapses.
People in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio - they're going to understand the notion of this shadow economy. They know that the middle class no longer has the type of secure jobs so prevalent in the 50s, 60s, 70s. They see the shuttered manufacturing plants. They understand that everything they buy at Wal-Mart was made in China. And they're going to relate to a person who champions an economy based on goods and services. These are people who go to work every day and come home and try to pay their bills. If they watch the news or read the paper, then maybe they see that Lehman Brothers has gone under and that AIG is next. Do they know these companies? No, probably not. So advice for Joe Biden, who was actually really, really good on the trail yesterday - it's time to tap into the disillusion of our nation's workers and to tie everything together. The loss of manufacturing jobs + NAFTA + deregulation + perpetual bubble theory of the Fed = an "invisible economy." A "mirage economy." It's time for a NEW economy. A green economy, where the wealth of this nation isn't measured by the $5 million bonus of a hedge fund manager on Wall Street, but is measured by how many good, decent jobs we can produce for workers here in America.
Now, I know I'm not suggesting anything new here. But as yet, I haven't heard either Obama or Biden tie it all together. And tying it all together, in clear, concise words is what is going to convince the workers in those rust belt states that Obama and Biden understand the problem, and have a plan to fix it.
Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin. We win those states, we win the election.