Wonder if Meteor-Blades is seeing hopeful signs given that the President seems to be changing his campaign rhetoric. I agree with what MB wrote recently:
Democrats can keep ineffectually fighting rearguard actions. Or they can fight for a better tomorrow. It is true that the extremists who now have the Republican party in a headlock will, for next year and a half, block or dilute or demolish any useful proposals Democrats put forward. But that doesn't mean they should not be put forward. Quite the opposite ought to be the case. Showing Americans what Democrats would do when they are again in the majority is smart politics. It helps get them that majority. On the other hand, no-can-do is a terrible campaign slogan.
The President's speech writers love to have him say the Republicans drove us into the ditch, and most here can at least agree that they did indeed have much to do with allowing regulatory capture, tax cuts for the rich, and transfer of wealth to the culprits responsible for our failing economy.
Will the President and his Administration get us out of the ditch? Even with the Republican Congress saying no at every turn, there are signs this week he just might, as he shifts from talking supply side to campaigning on jobs as well.
According to Galbraith thus far many economists, and Team Obama, have gotten it wrong on economic recovery and a massive shift is called for.
The President's friend, Senator Bernie Sanders, has been going around the country make speeches and media appearances urging the President to forget appeasing the Republicans and focus on jobs.
Another friend, Senator Sherrod Brown, is calling for an Infrastructure Bank.
What will the President unveil after Labor Day? Surprisingly, a writer for Forbes seems to think he knows....
Update: More leaks on the President's plan. Ezra has some here:
Economist James Galbraith has been one of the most sensible , in my view, for years getting it right on the economy and urging the administration to shift course
LA Times
Fixing the economy: We got it wrong
Our economic issues are worse than expected, and our solutions haven't worked. We need to start anew.
Galbraith predicted:
snip
I wrote a cover essay for Washington Monthly attacking predictions of early recovery. The "return to normal" would not happen, I wrote, because the effects of a financial collapse could not be reversed. But though this fact was obvious and in plain sight, somehow many economists missed it. Let's examine that epic failure.
Please read the article , he outlines several reasons why, then concludes:
snip
Obama's economists had more hubris and less ambition than Reagan's. They thought they could predict events accurately and put just the right policies into place. And that was before politics interfered, cutting the actual package to well below what Romer thought necessary. Larry Summers, however, was later quoted saying that he still thought the stimulus was about right, which raises the question: Why didn't it work as planned?
In fact, stimulus alone was never going to bring recovery. This crisis was caused by financial collapse, rooted in massive banking fraud. The financial system is our economic motor and when it fails it cannot be revived simply by pouring money on it, any more than a wrecked reactor can be restarted just by adding fuel.Team Obama faced a situation not seen since the 1930s — a worldwide banking meltdown. The financial system needed to be rebuilt — and it still does. But Team Obama chose to overlook this.
So Galbraith suggests that many economists and the Presidents advisers got it wrong on the economy, and now its important to try different plan to get us out of the ditch.
Senator Sanders makes suggestions on the Ed Show:
and in an address to working families
No transcripts, sorry but his suggestions are:
First, we must rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. That means repairing our roads, bridges, highways, dams, culverts, sewers, clean water systems, subways, schools, public transportation and affordable housing. When we do that we not only create millions of good paying jobs, but we also make the entire country more productive and competitive in the global economy.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has graded America's roads, public transit and aviation with a “D.” They say that we must invest over $2.2 trillion over the next five years simply to get to a “passable” condition. Today, the United States invests just 2.4 percent of GDP on infrastructure. Europe invests twice that amount. China invests almost four times our rate – roughly 9% of their GDP annually. On rail alone, the Chinese invested $186 billion from 2006 through 2009. Within two years China will open 42 new high-speed rail lines with trains that can reach speeds of more than 210 miles per hour. By 2020, China plans to add 26,000 additional miles of track for freight, 230,000 miles of new or improved roads and 97 new airports. There is no question in my mind that if we hope to compete in the global economy, we must increase our investment in our transportation infrastructure.
Second, we have got to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy. When we do that, we break our dependence on Middle East oil, we cut greenhouse gas emissions, we decrease air pollution and we put millions of Americans to work building American made solar panels, building American made wind turbines, building American made heat pumps and weatherizing millions of American homes with energy efficient products and technologies - all made in America. This is a win, win, win, win approach.
Third, we have got to fundamentally rewrite our trade policy laws so that American products, not jobs are our number one export. Simply stated, our current trade policy of unfettered free trade has been a disaster for American workers and must be reformed. Over the past thirty years, we have been told by the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and now Barack Obama that unfettered free trade will increase jobs in America. They have been proven wrong. NAFTA has led to the loss of over one million American jobs. Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China has led to the loss of over 2 million American jobs.
Over the last decade, over 50,000 manufacturing plants have been shut down in America and the number of manufacturing jobs we have is a fraction of what it used to be. You know it as well as I do! It is harder and harder to buy products MADE IN THE USA. And mark my words, if the George W. Bush unfettered free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama are signed into law by this President, even more American jobs will be lost. I will be doing my best to fight against these job-killing free trade agreements and come up with a trade approach which is based on the principles of fair trade, not unfettered free trade.
Another friend of the President's, Senator Sherrod Brown, suggests an Infrastructure Bank:
Leaders call for more infrastructure funding
WTAM.com - Ken Robinson - 6 hours ago
(Cleveland) –Senator Sherrod Brown is calling for the creation of a national infrastructure bank to fund critical public works projects. ...private money and government guarantees.
Ken Robinson, Newsradio WTAM 1100
The President is said to be going to announce his plan on jobs after labor day. What will it include? Will it be massive?
Forbes Says President Will Tout Infrastructure Bank
Look what I found today. With no links or allusions to how he knows, Forbes contributor. Paul Roderick Gregory writes:
A state infrastructure bank will be at the core of President Obama’s “jobs program”that he plans to unveil after his vacation. He will argue we desperately need a new government entity to repair our crumbling infrastructure and create jobs
.
The article is not supportive of the idea: Why We Don't Need An Infrastructure Bank? Japan Is Why .
Think I'll go with Sherrod Brown and support the Infrastructure Bank idea.
Of course all us look forward to hearing the President's Plan soon.
Meanwhile, What Can WE Do to Help the Unemployed and Hungry ?
Meanwhile, Democrats everywhere can take actions in support of the millions without jobs, especially targeting Republicans who lied during the last election about creating them. Would love to see more of this type, aimed at Boehner:
Yesterday, Boehner and several of his House colleagues got together with dozens of big-time donors at the Wayzata Country Club outside Minneapolis/St Paul. But, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune, some 100 workers and other activists showed up at the campaign cash open to ask Boehner why he wasn’t working as hard on solving the job crisis as he was on his golf game.
With a stretch limo bearing a faux Boehner complete with giant cardboard head and airplane overhead towing a banner reading “Where’s Our Piece of the Pie? Jobs Now,” they marched alongside the road and near the cart paths chanting, “Boehner, you can’t run away, we need jobs today.”
UPDATE:
More leaks on the President's plan! Ezra catalogs more of them here:
Posted at 07:56 AM ET, 08/22/2011
Wonkbook: Help coming for the long term unemployed?
By Ezra Klein