Whenever I see a discussion about the real crisis this country faces---that would be unemployment, not the manufactured one over the deficit---a couple of words keep coming up from the alleged smartest guys in the room, "confidence" and "certainty." Businesses would hire, so it's said, if they had either or both.
President Obama referred to it in a recent press conference:
It came up again yesterday in a roundtable discussion about jobs on Meet the Press. Just as an aside, two members of this roundtable were Ohio Governor John Kasich and Honeywell CEO David Cote. It has been estimated that Kasich's budget cuts in Ohio could lead to over 50,000 layoffs. Mr. Cote's history at Honeywell, where his 2010 compensation topped $20 million, has been one of outsourcing and union-busting. Just the two opinions you want on what to do about unemployment, right?
Mr. Kasich and Mr. Cote, who also sits on the board at JP Morgan Chase, spoke about the need for businesses to have certainty. Certainty about taxes and regulation. Certainty meaning lower taxes and less regulation, naturally.
In August of 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the same issues we face today. Here's what FDR had to say about confidence:
Confidence, schmonfidence. Businesses don't need either confidence or certainty, they need customers. Those would-be customers need jobs. We've had 30+ years of low taxes and less regulation. If those were the engines of job creation we'd have more jobs than we do people.
President Obama referred to it in a recent press conference:
"What we need to do is to restore business confidence and the confidence of the American people that we're on track -- that we're not going to get there right away, that this is a tough slog, but that we still are moving forward."
It came up again yesterday in a roundtable discussion about jobs on Meet the Press. Just as an aside, two members of this roundtable were Ohio Governor John Kasich and Honeywell CEO David Cote. It has been estimated that Kasich's budget cuts in Ohio could lead to over 50,000 layoffs. Mr. Cote's history at Honeywell, where his 2010 compensation topped $20 million, has been one of outsourcing and union-busting. Just the two opinions you want on what to do about unemployment, right?
Mr. Kasich and Mr. Cote, who also sits on the board at JP Morgan Chase, spoke about the need for businesses to have certainty. Certainty about taxes and regulation. Certainty meaning lower taxes and less regulation, naturally.
In August of 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed the same issues we face today. Here's what FDR had to say about confidence:
"In one year and five months, the people of the United States have received at least a partial answer to their demands for action; and neither the demand nor the action has reached the end of the road.
But, my friends, action may be delayed by two types of individuals. Let me cite examples: First, there is the man whose objectives are wholly right and wholly progressive but who declines to cooperate or even to discuss methods of arriving at the objectives because he insists on his own methods and nobody's else.
The other type to which I refer is the kind of individual who demands some message to the people of the United States that will restore what he calls "confidence." When I hear this I cannot help but remember the pleas that were made by government and certain types of so-called "big business" all through the years 1930, 1931 and 1932, that the only thing lacking in the United States was confidence.
Before I left on my trip on the first of July, I received two letters from important men, both of them pleading that I say something to restore confidence. To both of them I wrote identical answers: "What would you like to have me say?" From one of them I have received no reply at all in six weeks. I take it that he is still wondering how to answer. The other man wrote me frankly that in his judgment the way to restore confidence was for me to tell the people of the United States that all supervision by all forms of Government, Federal and State, over all forms of human activity called business should be forthwith abolished.
Now, my friends, in other words, that man was frank enough to imply that he would repeal all laws, State or national, which regulate business--that a utility could henceforth charge any rate, unreasonable or otherwise; that the railroads could go back to rebates and other secret agreements; that the processors of food stuffs could disregard all rules of health and of good faith; that the unregulated wild-cat banking of a century ago could be restored; that fraudulent securities and watered stock could be palmed off on the public; that stock manipulation which caused panics and enriched insiders could go unchecked. In fact, my friends, if we were to listen to him and his type, the old law of the tooth and the claw would reign in our Nation once more.
The people of the United States will not restore that ancient order. There is no lack of confidence on the part of those business men, farmers and workers who clearly read the signs of the times. Sound economic improvement comes from the improved conditions of the whole population and not a small fraction thereof.
Those who would measure confidence in this country in the future must look first to the average citizen."
Confidence, schmonfidence. Businesses don't need either confidence or certainty, they need customers. Those would-be customers need jobs. We've had 30+ years of low taxes and less regulation. If those were the engines of job creation we'd have more jobs than we do people.
Good question and one that I saw coming...
Well as the saying goes...one can anticipate a person's future behavior by their past.
Which is why him lying about his mama worries me a lot.
So what's the secret code? How can I tell when he's lying and when he's telling the truth?
With all due respect Des, Obama was bullshitting when he made those statements. He doesn't believe it for a minute. But so many of us, in particular the political party that lacks the mental gymnastic ability required to formulate an analogy, believe it. We've discussed that before...
He finally started using American ignorance to his advantage. Don't fall for the words, look to the meta message contained.
Here it is, complete with Bob Rubin. The Pea Party.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/07/19/lind_pea_party&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29_7_30_110
What I'm about to write is off topic, but then again not really....
It has to do with this debt ceiling issue and the consequences of not raising it. Shockingly I was reading yesterday that Geitner has been telling people that a failure to raise it, would be worse than the Great Depression.
Think about that.
If he is anything close to right, we absolutely cannot fail to raise the debt ceiling. Of all the things I've ever commented on here, this is among the most, very most URGENT. To me, this is like being in New Orleans knowing that Katrina was coming. But this is going to be for EVERYBODY! And of course it bears on the issue of post of Desperados-unemployment. If we have anything like a Great Depression, think what that will do to the unemployment rate...
Some poo-poo the idea that we will actually fall to raise the debt ceiling, but I have been reading really VERY many articles on this, and I do not agree at all. THIS IS VERY VERY SERIOUS, AND CONGRESS REALLY MIGHT FAIL TO RAISE IT, WITH UNINTENDED RESULTS.
If anything they are going to wait until the very last second now, with just days to spare before August 2nd. Four days at most. BUT, the markets might not wait that long. Gold has risen for 5 days in a row, and is at an all time high. Serious people are worried....
The reason I am writing about this here, is I am PLEADING that everyone reading this, get on the phone, and call Republican members of the House of Representatives and demand that they raise the debt ceiling. We have to put pressure on them! It would also help to do a search on the various tea party groups around the Country and call up their leaders and tell them to stop telling congress NOT to raise the debt ceiling!! That is what's behind most of the Republicans saying they will not raise it-pressure from the Tea Party groups.
This is very very serious, and REAL, and please if you can, call members of congress and tea party groups over the next several days. This is not a manufactured crisis, and it is not a joke. It is REAL.
-THANKS
--via Atrios
Leaving aside policy disagreements, and for sake of discussion assuming good intentions, I think the group being discussed are basically not fans of democracy. Voters and elections are problems, and the biggest problem for the Democratic party are actual Democrats. They'd prefer that government be run by some sort of committee headed by Robert Rubin. They dreamed of somehow ending politics, of just creating and implementing some sort of "consensus" (not of the people, but of the people who mattered) and then hitting the play button.
That’s probably about right. They’ll kick it down the road a few months and then we’ll go through this whole fucking charade again closer to the election. Look for another useless “commission” to be named, too. Meanwhile unemployment gets no better and more likely worse. But who cares, everybody in DC has a job, it’s just us serfs who don’t.
Oh, Libya is so yesterday. We’ve either started or ramped up “kinetic non-hostile military action” aka blowing the shit out of them suspected terrrists (and whoever else happens to be in the vicinity) in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan since then. You can never have too many non-wars.
Hey Carguy,
All that and the fact that he lied about his mama makes me want to vote for Bernie Sanders.
From what I can see, the repubtilians will FORCE Obama to raise the debt ceiling over their "objections" and we will get some significant spending cuts, NO higher taxes on the filthy rich and disgustingly rich corporations, posible re-structuring of SS and Medicare/caid, and more "kicking the can down the road" that our legislaturds are famous for.
Is that your take on it?
P.S. I understnad we and NATO are going on five months of the "iknetic military action" in Libya.
Five months........hmmmmmmmm.........sounds like a "stagnant military action" to me.
I've been waiting to say this for about three weeks........
"A rising tide floats all boats".
Only IF YOU have a BOAT. Otherwise, your sandcastle on the beach gets WASHED AWAY.
I got one thing out of the Sunday political talk shows. We will probably see NO siginficant debt reduction, see NO equalization of the tax burden, see NO increase in jobs, and MAYBE even HIGHER unemployment with the cuts in spending the government is planning.
The republicans are STILL running the show. The despicable, black-hearted bastards.
Odds on a double-dip recession and a worsening economy leading up to the 2012 election.....you can bet the farm on it. You may very well be doing that "literally."
Roosevelt, huh. This guy that came from the right side of the tracks seems to also have an inside track for recognizing truth. I'm impressed!
Exactly where the phrase "a rising tide floats all boats" comes from. My grandparents and parents taught me that when your neighbor loses his job or his house, be afraid. I cannot understand how we still have people claiming those that are suffering deserve it or are lazy or don't really want to work. If things don't start improving dramatically, we will all lose for a very, very long time. Great post, Des.