This promises to be a
VERY interesting week in Washington.
Ben Bernanke comes up for more-than-just-questionable confirmation for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. The White House is holding a "Jobs Summit." The less-than-perfect national health care effort marches on. And, the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its November 2009 Employment Situation Report--all within a 48+ hour period. (And, I'm leaving many other events of note relating to our economy off of this already-lengthy list, too.)
If there's one thing that is certain about all of this, it's that there'll be lots of spin and bloviating, all around.
So, as things continue to
not improve, or "get worse more slowly," as far as our nation's unemployment situation is concerned (never mind problems in housing, commercial real estate, world trade, the global economy, Wall Street balance sheets, etc.),
once AGAIN, Nobel laureate and Columbia University economics professor
Joseph Stiglitz -- IMHO, the most important person on the planet -- is snubbed, this time with a last-minute invite to the White House Jobs Summit on December 3rd.
About five months ago, I posted a diary on how Stiglitz was given a last-minute, 24-hour invitation (see direct source in Newsweek article, link provided in previous paragraph) to attend a dinner at the White House in the spring right here: "Mourning Joe's Absence: When Progressive Thought's Ignored." This time around, apparently, Krugman was caught in the muddy undertow, too. From John Aravosis: "Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz didn't receive invite to Obama "Jobs Summit" either."
Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz didn't receive invite to Obama "Jobs Summit" either
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
by John Aravosis (DC) on 11/17/2009 09:55:00 AM
I reported the other day that Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman had not received an invite to President Obama's "Jobs Summitt" in early December. I now have an update from Anya Schiffrin, Joe Stiglitz's wife, who just emailed me (the email is real, we know each other): "I saw your post mentioning Joe. We never saw an invitation. It is possible they sent one and it didn't get passed on to us, but I am guessing he was not invited."
So, naturally, when you're hosting a "Jobs Summit," and you start off by treating the two most prominent, progressive economists in this country as afterthoughts, it's all downhill from there; from today's (Monday's) New York Times: "The Jobs Imperative."
The Jobs Imperative
New York Times
Op-Ed Columnist
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published Online: November 29, 2009 Published In Print: November 30, 2009
If you're looking for a job right now, your prospects are terrible. There are six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings, and the average duration of unemployment -- the time the average job-seeker has spent looking for work -- is more than six months, the highest level since the 1930s.
You might think, then, that doing something about the employment situation would be a top policy priority. But now that total financial collapse has been averted, all the urgency seems to have vanished from policy discussion, replaced by a strange passivity. There's a pervasive sense in Washington that nothing more can or should be done, that we should just wait for the economic recovery to trickle down to workers.
This is wrong and unacceptable...
Krugman continues on in his column to note that even the Federal Reserve forecasts unemployment "...to stay above 8 percent -- a number that would have been considered disastrous not long ago -- until sometime in 2012." He comes out and says that our failure to more aggressively address unemployment is, simply, "short-sighted."
Essentially, as Krugman reminds us, it's time to stop talking about effectively addressing job losses and actually "...provide jobs by ... providing jobs."
...Later this week, President Obama will hold a "jobs summit." Most of the people I talk to are cynical about the event, and expect the administration to offer no more than symbolic gestures. But it doesn't have to be that way. Yes, we can create more jobs -- and yes, we should.
Yes, there are many political realities that make allocating additional, large amounts of federal funds for job creation much more difficult now than if we had done so from the get-go, as both he and Stiglitz (and many others) had railed about at the time. So, the potential for this actually happening now--even though it's now morphed into what Krugman rightly refers to as a "social and economic emergency"--are far less-than-likely.
So, it's NOT a stretch to concur with Krugman's observation that this could very well turnout to be little more than a symbolic gesture.
And, IMHO, that's just light years beyond pathetic!
We can bitch and moan all we want about how President Obama's only been in office for 10 months, but neither the calendar--with 2010 midterms already getting into full-swing--nor public sentiment gives a flying f**k about those other truths.
These are the harsh cards which we Democrats have been dealt.
So, this morning--and since the subject matter in this diary is our VERY HARSH economic reality--I'm going to leave you with what I think may be the most REALITY-BASED commentary I've read in a long time...
From blogger Cognitive Dissonance's post on Zero Hedge tonight: "End of Empire--Propaganda and the American Myth."
End of Empire--Propaganda and the American Myth
Submitted by Cognitive Dissonance on 11/29/2009 17:15 -0500
via Zero Hedge
...False hope binds us to impossible conditions and situations. Please read that statement again and then let it sink in for a minute.
As long as we believe there's residual value in keeping America on life support, we'll continue to pour borrowed money into this mess, rather than roll up the derivatives, fire the managers and start over. We don't wish to face the reality that we're in way over our heads. As long as we're not forced to look too closely at the horrible condition our country's in, we're all too willing to do our part and avoid applying critical thinking to the subject. Like an old bull unknowingly led to slaughter because he thinks he's off to mount another cow, we're desperately trying to keep alive the magical American myth of life, liberty and apple pie while shielding our eyes from the rotting corpse it's rapidly becoming.
That's probably too harsh for the average American's sensibilities, but let's ask ourselves a few questions in an effort to find the truth, or at least something approaching the truth as we know it. Let me be clear on something before I get flamed for my harsh tongue. I'm not America bashing in the least. I'm America myth bashing. The American myth of exceptionalism is enabling her destruction as we stand idly by, applauding the mythical facade our leaders and media display 24/7. As long as we cling to the hope that all she needs is a tune up and some minor repairs, we're condemned to a long and painful death spiral. We're being sold exactly what we want to hear when we need to hear it. To claim otherwise is to lie to ourselves and to each other.
America is crumbling from the foundation up, and yet we gather around the TV, talking about a fresh paint job and a new screen door, both bought on credit, while handing our grandchildren a bill they'll never be able to pay. The only way we can live with this lie while perpetrating these despicable acts upon our own family members is to deny it's even happening. The big lie, which we must continue to tell ourselves, has taken on a life of its own and is consuming everyone and everything in its path. We are addicted to our own public myth and to sustain the lie, we simply ignore the truth. The only way to break through this lie is to go back through decades of propaganda and myth and find out what went wrong. Since this would be too painful, both individually and as a society, we distort reality as quickly as we change cable channels. It's not just our leaders who are corrupt but we as well.
We have become cowardly, unwilling to commit to the tough decision of setting aside instant gratification in order to assure our grandchildren a home to live in. This is the ultimate act of selfishness, compounded by the fact that we claim we've been hijacked by our leaders. Sadly, our leaders are doing exactly what we want them to do, which is to continue the lie...
Is there really anything else to say? If so, go for it...