Productivity Growth is key

When I said 'Change we can believe in,' I didn't say, 'Change we can believe in tomorrow.' Not 'Change we can believe in next week.' We knew this was going to take time.  -- Barry Obama , Chicago Birthday Fundraiser

I ran out of gas. I... I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD! -- Jake Blues, to the Mystery Woman, The Blues Brothers Movie, 1980
 
Markets will rise and fall but no matter what some ratings agency might say, we're still America, and we always have been and always will be a triple-A country -- Barry Obama, first press conference 8/8/11 after the S&P downgrade on 8/5/11
"First Comes Denial" .  -- Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
 
I did, I promised a moratorium on Obama bashing. Sorry, It's just that it's hard to do a consequential blog these days without giving credit where credit is due. 
 
I am amazed that the Tea Party is assigned any blame whatsoever in all this. The 56 members of congress who pledged any allegance to the Tea Party were eventually cut out of the debt deal, and then when S & P downgrades the government for not cutting anything of consequence, all of a sudden it's the Tea Party's fault? Wow, talk about poor aim.
 
And the S&P? Finally the folks paid to watch it all call it like they see it, and both teams want to kill the umpire.
 
Meanwhile, the Bush-Obama depression continues unabated. QE3 will probably be launched today, which will boost the stock market, and tie up another trillion in capital. More support for Wall Street, at a time when it is Main Street that needs the help.
 
The answer is productivity growth, of course. We need everybody working. We need to create an environment where private investments are made, where people are free to work, and where companies are free to hire them. I believe we're not that far away, in economic proximity if you will, from a recovery. But we are far away politically. The additional headwinds applied by Obama make it all the harder, but it's evident that less federal spending is the one crucial thing that will free the capital and create the positive momentum Main Street needs. Yes, lower taxes, if applied correctly could work. And fewer employment regulations would help as well.
 
The Wizer's Plan for Productivity Growth?: A one year moratorium on the minimum wage.
 
Instead, we get speeches about taxing corporate jets and subsidizing electric cars. These are not big ideas. No one can rally around government interference in technology. This is policy by sound-bite. 
 
Finally, there is this Obama notion of a balanced approach. What in the world is balanced about increasing taxes on one percent of the citizenry? Seriously?
 
The most tragic and pathetic aspect of all this? That we feel powerless to improve the situation before November of 2012. Unbelievable. We have to do better.