If you don’t want them, don’t feed them. They don’t want a conversation, and they don’t want to learn anything. They want attention. Please don’t give it to them.
Month: June 2010
Krugman Speaks, No One Listens
A similar argument is used to justify fiscal austerity. Both textbook economics and experience say that slashing spending when you’re still suffering from high unemployment is a really bad idea — not only does it deepen the slump, but it does little to improve the budget outlook, because much of what governments save by spending less they lose as a weaker economy depresses tax receipts. And the O.E.C.D. predicts that high unemployment will persist for years. Nonetheless, the organization demands both that governments cancel any further plans for economic stimulus and that they begin “fiscal consolidation” next year.
Why do this? Again, to give markets something they shouldn’t want and currently don’t. Right now, investors don’t seem at all worried about the solvency of the U.S. government; the interest rates on federal bonds are near historic lows. And even if markets were worried about U.S. fiscal prospects, spending cuts in the face of a depressed economy would do little to improve those prospects. But cut we must, says the O.E.C.D., because inadequate consolidation efforts “would risk adverse reactions in financial markets.”
The best summary I’ve seen of all this comes from Martin Wolf of The Financial Times, who describes the new conventional wisdom as being that “giving the markets what we think they may want in future — even though they show little sign of insisting on it now — should be the ruling idea in policy.”
Put that way, it sounds crazy. And it is. Yet it’s a view that’s spreading. And it’s already having ugly consequences. Last week conservative members of the House, invoking the new deficit fears, scaled back a bill extending aid to the long-term unemployed — and the Senate left town without acting on even the inadequate measures that remained. As a result, many American families are about to lose unemployment benefits, health insurance, or both — and as these families are forced to slash spending, they will endanger the jobs of many more.
And that’s just the beginning. More and more, conventional wisdom says that the responsible thing is to make the unemployed suffer. And while the benefits from inflicting pain are an illusion, the pain itself will be all too real.
D-I-V-O-R-C-E
I wish Al and Tipper Gore the best. Knowing the many, many forces that exist to hold a marriage together no matter what, I assume there are forces just as strong that compel them apart.
Whatever those forces are, I’m sure they include a strong drive toward growth, and evolution. That’s what the lives of these two eminently decent people have been like all along, and it’s not going to stop now.
Chronic Joblessness
I still can’t quite wrap my brain around the fact that a Democratic administration is doing nothing to help the unemployed:
Overall, seven million Americans have been looking for work for 27 weeks or more, and most of them—4.7 million—have been out of work for a year or more.
Long-term unemployment has reached nearly every segment of the population, but some have been particularly hard-hit. The typical long-term unemployed worker is a white man with a high-school education or less. Older unemployed workers also tend to be out of work longer. Those between ages 65 and 69 who still wish to work have typically been jobless for 49.8 weeks.
The effects of long-term unemployment are likely to linger when the overall jobless rate falls toward normal, threatening to create a pool of nearly permanently unemployed workers, a condition once more common in Europe than in the U.S.
“The consequences are worse for those who can’t find a job quickly,” said Till Marco von Wachter, a Columbia University economist. They extend from atrophying skills to a higher likelihood of unhappiness and anxiety. Workers out of work for a long time tend to find it more difficult to find a job, and “the longer people are unemployed the more likely they are to eventually give up searching and thereby drop out of the labor force,” Mr. von Wachter said.
The typical unemployed worker, regardless of occupation, had been unemployed for a seasonally adjusted 21.6 weeks as of April. Because of the deep recession, Congress extended jobless benefits to a maximum of 99 weeks in states with high unemployment. Those extended benefits will expire if Congress doesn’t act; the Labor Department estimates that 19,000 jobless workers could start losing benefits in the first week of June. The House has voted to extend the benefits; the Senate hasn’t yet.
While blue-collar and construction workers have been battered by the recession, they aren’t the only ones hit. Unemployed production workers, including toolmakers, woodworkers and food processors, have been out of work for a median of 38.1 weeks. Unemployed workers whose most recent job was in management, business and financial operations have typically been out of work for 32.3 weeks.
Richard Moran of Ortonville, Mich., the state with the highest U.S. unemployment rate, hasn’t had a job for two-and-a-half years. The 57-year-old, who was laid off from a testing and design job for Chrysler Group LLC, suspects his age is working against him.
Mr. Moran has attended two free training programs. The first, to become a corrections officer, ended at roughly the same time that Michigan was closing prisons amid tightening budgets. He recently finished an auto-parts design course to refresh his skills. “The certificates are piling up,” said Mr. Moran, who also has a four-year college degree in mass communications.
While education is helpful, college graduates have also fallen into the ranks of the long-term unemployed. They represent 15.9% of the long-term jobless, compared with 14.9% of all unemployed workers. Those with high school degrees who haven’t been to college comprise 40.7% of long-term unemployed, compared with 37.8% of all unemployed workers.
James O’Keefe
We Are Shocked
United Nations » Israel faced heavy criticism in an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council on Monday in response to its deadly attack on an aid flotilla trying to breach the Gaza blockade, but attempts to issue a formal statement stalled after the United States rejected the strong condemnation sought by Turkey.
Turkey proposed a statement that would condemn Israel for violating international law, demand a U.N. investigation and demand that Israel prosecute those responsible for the raid and pay compensation to the victims. It also called for the end of the blockade.
The Obama administration refused to endorse a statement that singled out Israel, and proposed a broader condemnation of the violence that would include the assault of the Israeli commandos as they landed on the deck of the ship.
Even though they were shooting even before they came on the ship, and killed the captain. But don’t let that small detail distract you. Just like all those stories about the Israelis using white phosphorus on civilians they so vehemently denied — but admitted, months later.
Saved
You know, I never had a great rapport with the mechanic around the corner. It might have been all the pictures of Reagan, Bush and Frank Rizzo on the wall that made me feel less than warm. But in any event, I’ve started to get the feeling that he’s ripping me off.
I was talking to one of my neighbors yesterday, and she made no bones about it. “He doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing,” she said. “He’s got no diagnostic equipment, I don’t think he knows anything at all about cars that aren’t at least thirty years old,” she said. “And besides, he makes most of his money as a gun dealer. Take your car to someone else and have them look at it.”
She recommended a garage bay in an industrial park a few blocks away. I went there this morning to have them look at it. It was a truck repair place run by a couple of guys, one with a heavy accent and another one who couldn’t speak English at all. No Joey Vento cheesesteak for you!
But they showed me the problem – a piece of protective molding that had split and was rubbing against the suspension whenever I made a turn. The guy who couldn’t speak English got under the car and made a makeshift repair with a screw and a washer. “This will be fine, you don’t need nothing else,” the English-speaking guy told me.
The price? $20. I thanked them profusely.
I can’t believe that other moron was gonna charge me $375.
Kittens
I know someone who has five of ’em. Want one?
Our Epic Foolishness
I really like this Bob Herbert piece. Yes, there really is a lot that can be done. It’s about time we started doing it.
Deep Thought
Terrorists don’t want to attack us because they hate our freedom. They attack us because we keep making it possible for the Israelis to oppress the Palestinians.