The Freefalling Economy
By P. SAINATH
When the applause dies down, the first African-American President of the United States will have to deal with things less cheerful than his Inaugural Ball. The US is losing close to 16,000 jobs a day on average. (That was 14,000 a day just a month ago.) It lost over 1.1 million jobs in just the two months of November and December. And the December loss in payroll employment (5,24,000) recorded by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, is a provisional figure. It is likely be revised upwards by several thousand - as were the numbers of earlier months.
This means that 2008, with 2.75 million jobs lost, was the worst year for layoffs in the United States since 1945. What does President Obama do? And what will he have to confront in doing it? He will have to create jobs on a scale unheard of in decades in his nation. Unemployment benefits, giant public works, massive infrastructure spending, a good health system, all these would also help lessen the hardship ahead. He will need - assuming he wants that - to flip a system where wealth still flows most disproportionately towards the top 1 per cent. In any effort he makes, he will run into an awesome corporate power - already regrouping from Meltdown Phase I.
Parallels with Franklin Delano Roosevelt are tempting - and dicey. True, FDR did not start out as a progressive. Quite the contrary. But circumstances forced him to take a path he might not have dreamed of. In that, there is perhaps hope for Obama. However, FDR lived and worked in a very different era. In an America where Labour and poor people had a voice. Where unions mattered. Where many diverse political currents had their own following. Where Socialists, Populists, Communists, Anarchists and others made an impact on political thought and process. In such a world, it was not only easier to do the bold thing - it was perhaps unavoidable. What kind of diversity is there now? Obama can choose to toe the corporate line broadly. Or he can choose to toe the corporate line narrowly. Anything else would be radical. It was great to have Pete Seeger at the inaugural concert. Alas, it won't be that best-loved folk singer calling the tune now.
The America Obama inherits is one where most Democrats and Republicans in Congress unite to stifle Labour.
Keep Reading...
punditman says....
If you have a bruise, apply ice, right? Punditman is recovering from a bruising game of pond hockey, only to wake to find that Iceland's government has now fallen. The problem is that for deep bone bruises, ice will help, but it will take months, even years, before the body heals the area. Good luck, Iceland.
Meanwhile, economists whose brains are not bruised have a pessimistic outlook on growth for 2009 with greater job losses and worsening economic conditions in the months to come.
In the above article, the author points out that typically, governments will come up tomorrow with something that might have worked yesterday, and he quotes Nouriel Roubini ("Dr. Doom") as follows, "a housing bubble, a mortgage bubble, an equity bubble, a bond bubble, a credit bubble, a commodity bubble, a private equity bubble, and a hedge funds bubble -- are all now bursting simultaneously."
Yeah, I get it— it's an unprecedented global, economic bruising.
Yikes, I'm starting to post like Peacenik. To end on a positive note, let's work towards finding new solutions today that will work for the problems of today—and tomorrow. Only then can we hope to heal these economic contusions.
By P. SAINATH
When the applause dies down, the first African-American President of the United States will have to deal with things less cheerful than his Inaugural Ball. The US is losing close to 16,000 jobs a day on average. (That was 14,000 a day just a month ago.) It lost over 1.1 million jobs in just the two months of November and December. And the December loss in payroll employment (5,24,000) recorded by the Bureau of Labour Statistics, is a provisional figure. It is likely be revised upwards by several thousand - as were the numbers of earlier months.
This means that 2008, with 2.75 million jobs lost, was the worst year for layoffs in the United States since 1945. What does President Obama do? And what will he have to confront in doing it? He will have to create jobs on a scale unheard of in decades in his nation. Unemployment benefits, giant public works, massive infrastructure spending, a good health system, all these would also help lessen the hardship ahead. He will need - assuming he wants that - to flip a system where wealth still flows most disproportionately towards the top 1 per cent. In any effort he makes, he will run into an awesome corporate power - already regrouping from Meltdown Phase I.
Parallels with Franklin Delano Roosevelt are tempting - and dicey. True, FDR did not start out as a progressive. Quite the contrary. But circumstances forced him to take a path he might not have dreamed of. In that, there is perhaps hope for Obama. However, FDR lived and worked in a very different era. In an America where Labour and poor people had a voice. Where unions mattered. Where many diverse political currents had their own following. Where Socialists, Populists, Communists, Anarchists and others made an impact on political thought and process. In such a world, it was not only easier to do the bold thing - it was perhaps unavoidable. What kind of diversity is there now? Obama can choose to toe the corporate line broadly. Or he can choose to toe the corporate line narrowly. Anything else would be radical. It was great to have Pete Seeger at the inaugural concert. Alas, it won't be that best-loved folk singer calling the tune now.
The America Obama inherits is one where most Democrats and Republicans in Congress unite to stifle Labour.
Keep Reading...
punditman says....
If you have a bruise, apply ice, right? Punditman is recovering from a bruising game of pond hockey, only to wake to find that Iceland's government has now fallen. The problem is that for deep bone bruises, ice will help, but it will take months, even years, before the body heals the area. Good luck, Iceland.
Meanwhile, economists whose brains are not bruised have a pessimistic outlook on growth for 2009 with greater job losses and worsening economic conditions in the months to come.
In the above article, the author points out that typically, governments will come up tomorrow with something that might have worked yesterday, and he quotes Nouriel Roubini ("Dr. Doom") as follows, "a housing bubble, a mortgage bubble, an equity bubble, a bond bubble, a credit bubble, a commodity bubble, a private equity bubble, and a hedge funds bubble -- are all now bursting simultaneously."
Yeah, I get it— it's an unprecedented global, economic bruising.
Yikes, I'm starting to post like Peacenik. To end on a positive note, let's work towards finding new solutions today that will work for the problems of today—and tomorrow. Only then can we hope to heal these economic contusions.
