How To Really Save the Economy

I like Robert Reich rather a lot, so it's somewhat hard for me to say he's also a victim of the political expediency disease that infects the national discussion of how to fix this severely broken economy.

But it's worthwhile to examine another manner of Keynesian stimulus.

Of all his suggestions in the referenced post, only the second makes any real sense in the short term. Number Four would except for the social problem that gets to the heart of the economic problem.

As an example, we have a severe deficit of skilled workers - such as the nurses and medical technicians - required to carry out several of these key jobs, as illustrated by recent reporting on the subject.

If it wasn't apparent in October of last year, it certainly is now that the solution to the economic melt-down wasn't a massive bail-out of the financial industry. I'm sure that at some point it will also become obvious that it isn't a massive infrastructure rebuilding that can't take place with the rapidity required (in the current political climate) any more than Hoover could have been re-elected in 1932.

The political courage required to waive regulatory and environmental requirements is non-existent - and would quite likely cause more harm than good.

The real solution should have been undertaken in the late-1980s and early-1990s, continuing until (and beyond) today. The fact that it wasn't except to the extent that it was paid the soon-to-be familiar theme of lip-service can be laid squarely at the feet of both parties, and the sad fact is only one is now qualified to carry it out. Whether they will is another matter entirely...

Unlike the last Depression, when the rest of the world found itself reeling as badly (if not worse) than the United States, we're in the unique position of being the victims of our own success.

Our success in transferring massive amounts of wealth to select segments of our population and economy, our success in destroying what opportunities for economic mobility remained, and our success in doing nothing to prepare for the inevitable result of those policies.

(Unless you couldn't vote until 2008, you - like I - have a 50% chance of being to blame for this, so don't start acting all smug around your Republican friends.)

The only solution is to engage in something that will cause howls from both Republicans and so-Called Democrats. It will increase the debt, which could be alleviated with the fortitude to call in several loans made to industries and interests that haven't shown any value. It will take at least a year to have a noticeable effect, and it should have been started on January 22nd of this year.

But President Obama is the last person who can be blamed for that.

Unlike the massive public works projects of the 30's, we need a massive public education project. Not just for current students of our fine (and not so fine) public school systems, but for the un- and under-employed.

A national program set up to provide the entire costs of occupational retraining from one to four years), made painlessly simple to join, and promoted heavily is/was the solution that should have been made several months ago.

I can't exactly say that I could see this particularly clearly at the time, having not been aware of just how much of a waste of time a national infrastructure project might be, but the desirability of such a program is pretty damn clear now.

Instead of continuing to direct the 60% or so of stimulus funds (and the remaining $250 billion or so of TARP) to projects that will likely do very little long-term good without the skilled workers necessary, it might be highly advisable to start on a program of retraining for millions of currently displaced workers, while also continuing to address one of the other three problems identified several years ago that are holding back the vast majority of Americans...