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Jobs Act Where Art Thou?
I have been on a short vacation and somewhat absent from posting for a bit.
I did, however, take some time on my vacation to react to the President’s speech last Thursday which I posted in The Continuing Cluelessness of the Obama Administration, my basic reaction is that it is completely irrelevant to creating jobs and inspiring economic activity.
One of the remarkable things, however, to emerge from this continuing debacle is the fact that there is no Jobs Act as of yet, President Obama having failed to forward it to Congress yet despite his call to pass it at once. Friends in Iowa actually have a elapsed time clock posted on their webiste to emphasize that point while calling out Congressman Leonard Boswell for his failure to respond to their inquires.
The question, naturally, is when the Obama Administration actually intends to submit their plan to Congress and when, if at all, Representatives intend to convey its contents to their constituents.
The elapsed time clock can be viewed at TruthIowa.com.
It will be interesting to follow this to really find out when and if President Obama ever submits to final and complete plan to Congress.
The Continuing Cluelessnes of the Obama Administration
I was unable to watch the Obama speech on jobs last night as I was on a long distance drive. Consequently, I listened to his speech on the radio and focused on the content.
As a serial entrepreneur, having created thousands of jobs in my lifetime, engaged in another round of start-ups as well as posessing quite a hefty amount of economics education beyond my undergraduate degree in the subject, I found the impassioned speech remarkably free of content sans the intent to spread a half-trillion dollars around to people quickly (they must be people already lobbying for the cash rather than real entreprenuers) to assuage his standing in the polls.
Here is all you need to know about Mr. Obama’ plan in 5 quick bullet points.
- Most new jobs are not only created by small businesses, it is a subset of small businesses called start-ups.
- Start-ups take time to create from inception, to design, to planning, to funding, to government approvals.
- For even the simplest start-ups in most locations in the US, government permitting and licenses will take about 1 year (and that is for a mere restaurant, try a factory of any type and the time grows exponentially).
- Even if I have a concept, taken the time to design it, finished my business plan, marketed my business plan, found and arranged my financing and am ready to go today, by the time I get my government permits and licenses, most, if not all, of President Obama’s plans will have expired.
- In other words, the plan is irrelevant to jump start real, sustainable job creation.
I could desconstruct the details of his plan point by point should one be able to actually get ahold of a copy – no one in Congress has yet received it – but it is ultimately irrelevant. It does not even acknowledge or enable incentives to bridge the yawning gap in timing for business creation that is even created by the Goverment. There are many other things that are wrong with this plan, but when it is so wrong on such a fundamental level and disdains reality in such arrogant fashion, there really is no reason to waste valuable time in life to analyze it any farther.
I am simply left wondering wheter the President lives on a different planet than I do, but I know the real reason for this proposal. It is a political proposal to buffet the President’s waning popularity by attempting to box his primary opponents in.
That may be good politics, but it is just short of flashing a symbolic obscenity at the unemployed, underemployed, struggling businesses people and entrepreneurs. The President just did a Maxine Waters, but the target was not the Tea Party, it was you. After all, we all know what this was about – not you, not me, not the unemployed – it was about the President himself.
Milton Friedman on “Soaking the Rich”
This video is a bit of deja’ vu. It is a segment of an interview on the Phil Donahue show in which the famous professor and monetarist answers a woman’s question that seems to be focused on the unfairness of the existence of billionaires in a capitalist society.
Although the video is about 25 years or so old, the issues are the same that are being debated today – taxing the rich, viabilty of social security and more.
Even though the late economist was an innovator and academic, his explanations remain very accessible to the average person.
Video: Economic Freedom and a Better Life
In our continuing series of condensing lectures on economics, freedom, and liberty, this embedded video is from economics professor Josh Hall.
In this short 3 minute video, he explains that economic freedom leads to greater human well-being. If we look at average income, life expectancy, income of the poorest 10%, and other factors, we see that when governments let citizens make economic decisions for themselves, this leads to greater human flourishing.
Ford and the Auto Bailout…
The visit of President Barack Obama to Detroit yesterday gave the Administration ample opportunity to crow about the Government led auto bailout of 2008.
“If it was up to the Republican Party, Chrysler and General Motors would not have been here,” UAW Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Williams told the crowd of thousands “If it wasn’t for President Obama, we would not have the opportunity to once again build the best cars and trucks in the whole world.”
I should note that the first phase of the auto bailout was announced on December 19, 2008 by Treasury Secretary Paulson, under Republican George W. Bush, but facts don’t seem to matter these days. As I pointed out yesterday in a review of Mr. Obama’s speech, divisiveness, catalyzed by mendacity if necessary, seems to be the tenor of the times.
The President, as well, was not shy about proclaiming the success of his program stating: “When we stood by the auto industry, we made some tough choices that were necessary to make it succeed,” Obama told the crowd. “Now the Big Three are turning a profit and hiring new workers and building the best cars in the world right here in Detroit.”
Of course, the auto bailouts did not bail out “The Big Three” but rather two of the three, one of which is now controlled by an Italian company.
Moreover, one segment of the UAW and the “Big Three” seems to be getting the shaft – Ford Motor Company and its employees. As the following article makes clear…
Obama and Motown….
President Obama appeared today in my hometown, the city of wheels, Detroit, MI.
Although in the grand and beautiful state of Michigan for the Labor Day weekend, I did not venture into the Motor City to hear the President speak, instead choosing to stay in a quintessentially Michigan setting near a lake and tune into it on C-Span. What I was treated to via the helpful public affairs channel was vintage Barack Obama at his best. It featured many of his trademark rhetorical flourishes, and the crowd of mostly unionized workers relished the Orwellian tribute despite its often conflicting statements and logic.
Ending his speech with – “We are one nation. We are one people. We will rise and fall together. Anyone who doesn’t believe it should come to Detroit.” – may salve the ill fated psychic wounds endured by my beloved place of heritage, but it smacks of hometown boosterism and not much more. Detroit, in fact, has seen its prospects plummet under Mr. Obama, the city itself laboring under an unemployment rate close to 25% which is about 8 percentage points higher than when Obama took office at the nadir of the recession. I presume, therefore, the President is alluding to falling together rather than rallying to rise together, not a very satisfying message to send the country in its current collective mindset of desiring constructive and positive leadership.
In fact, the thing that struck me most listening to the speech was that it was anything but constructive, anything but positive, and anything but a call to unify. In fact, my own perception of the speech that it was classic political theatre intended to rouse a core constituency through demonizing other segments of our society and dividing our country further. Amongst his disfavored groups that are apparently not of the collective that rises and falls together are bankers (whom he decried for taking the bailouts he proffered and not coincidentally forced on a few) businesses who are greedy (as if the “system” when properly governed is not supposed to make this a public good), Republicans who apparently are simply “playing games” (The President of no bi-partisan legislation reiterating his tendency to autocracy by saying “Still believes that both parties can work together to solve problems” and he is “not going to wait for them”….sigh), and, fittingly, States that dare propose right to work laws and auto companies that fail to take government money (Mr. Obama conveniently omitting mention of Ford during his speech despite pawning over General Motors and Chrysler, two companies that have been blessed with both cheap capital and, conveniently, protection from labor strikes by the Administration).
AT&T and T-Mobile: Troubled Reasoning Despite Good Policy
While I applaud the decision of the Department of Justice to file suit to block the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile as a sound free-market and pro-competive decision, recent quotes from Administration officials leave us to believe that this positive and constructive move may be more of a case of a blind squirell finding a nut than any sort of visionary and sound policy posture. Moreover, in reading the reviews of this action, I remain convinced that the knowledge of economics on the part of journalists remain sourced in partisan talking points rather than any fundamental knowledge of the arcane science, as evidenced in the wholly biased article by Ben Protess and J. Michael Merced in today’s New York Times entitled The Anti-Trust Battle Ahead.
The battle lines in the case involving the merger are quite clear. AT&T and T-Mobile claim that the US mobile communications market is highly competitive and that the combination of the two will provide economic synergies resulting in efficiencies and better service for consumers. The Department of Justice is claiming that the combination is anti-competitive and will harm consumers. Both are correct and both miss the larger issue that is wrapped in a smaller subset of facts and proven theories.
First off, the United States wireless communications market is highly competitive. The very fact that Deutsche Telecom, the parent of T-Mobile, finds it difficult to compete in the market is sufficient testimony to that circumstance as the German powerhouse does not face similar market dynamics in a range of other countries in which it competes. The United States market, however, also has market segments in which there is far less competition, each one dileneated by the technology deployed by the competing companies. Unlike most of the rest of the world that operates on the GSM standard for cellular communications, the US features three primary technologies – CDMA, TDMA and GSM. Therein lies the rub for AT&T and T-Mobile – there are only two major carriers in the US that use the worldwide standard and they are T-Mobile and AT&T.
Video: The Value of Economic Freedom
The following video is not as intellectual and theorectical as some of our video presentations, but it is succint in its view of the value of economic freedom.
Rather than fill our library of videos with purely academic excercises, I felt it was important that some to the point narratives were provided as well. Enjoy this video from Economic Freedom and visit their site for more information if you wish.
Video: Media Bias with Tim Groseclose
Drawing upon Stanford University’s phenomenal video interview/lecture/speech series, this 33 minute video features an interview with UCLA professor of American Politics Tim Groseclose discussing media bias in the United States. Professor Groseclose has also taught at Caltech, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Ohio State University and Harvard. His new book is Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind
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In his book, Groseclose explains how he measures the political leanings of ordinary Americans, the level of bias in any chosen media company, and how this media bias powerfully affects elections. He concludes by offering ways of combating media bias and explaining the role the Internet plays in exposing this bias. This revealing interview is a perfect introduction to both the research and resultant book by Professor Groseclose. I hope you enjoy the interview and our efforts to bring to you contemporary video commentary on issues impacting every American today.
