dagblog - Comments for "Doing Two Things at Once: Jobs and Housing as Routes Out of Recession?"

Recommended. Thank you,

AmericanDreamer — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:54:19 +0000

In reply to Doing Two Things at Once: Jobs and Housing as Routes Out of Recession?

Recommended. Thank you, again, David, for outstanding work.

Again, the issue is not whether or not the White House is capable of going directly to the American people, frontally challenging the assumptions of affluent Americans who don't, as Dan points out, see the crisis, that the federal government can't or shouldn't do more because of moral hazard. And laying out the case straighforwardly for how dealing with the home mortgage mess will help on jobs, help broadly with the recovery, and help ensure that the property values of the top 10%, instead of being vulnerable to being dragged down because of the broad dynamics in most housing markets around the country, will instead be shored up and further secured.

Rather, the issue for the White House is its evolving read on the best route to re-election. I agree with your take that bolder proposals, explained directly to the public, will strengthen the White House's position.

James Carville is recommending panic to the White House. I would recommend instead that they read what you're writing about this, get the views of other thoughtful individuals proposing more aggressive actions on housing and jobs, and decide which among them they're going to further propose and fight for at the right time.

If the Republicans block his jobs bill, instead of retreating I hope he'll ratchet up the pressure by embracing Rep. Jan Schakowsky's jobs bill, which I'd mentioned a couple of weeks back and which red planet wrote on yesterday in his real Democratic jobs proposal post..

The President could offer a ready explanation if it comes to that. In keeping with his commitment to pursuing bipartisanship his initial jobs proposal incorporates elements that Republicans have at one point supported. Now that the Republicans have made it plain for all Americans that their real agenda is obstructing efforts by the federal government to deal with the jobs crisis, he concludes bipartisanship cannot work on this matter and asks the public to elect a Congress that will pass the Schakowsky bill in January 2013, if the current Congress cannot or will not do so.

The Republicans might actually be smart to let last week's jobs bill pass, given how easily satisfied this White House is. Doing so might, from their point of view, defuse the jobs issue for the election and reduce any sense of urgency the WH might feel, or come to feel, on dealing with the home mortgage mess as a necessary part of a jobs policy. The GOP could say "see, we gave you what you wanted and, look, unemployment is still at [too high] X%. We told you--the federal government should just sit down and shut up and cut the deficit."

I can even imagine Republicans in Congress considering letting the President's jobs proposal from last week pass only if they begin to have a slight amount of concern that a more aggressive White House could begin to make them look bad, and change some minds about the President for the better. The kind of concern that some Republican members of Congress fleetingly allowed to show on their faces during the President's jobs speech last Thursday. That was them imagining a President Obama they might actually fear.

Put the money in the hands of

Resistance — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:37:20 +0000

In reply to It's one thing to lose your

Put the money in the hands of the people (homeowners), they'll hire contractors, they'll do home improvements, they'll buy new appliances. Local communities will collect sales taxes, to support schools, road construction, etc.

They'll support the local economy. They'll support schools, who will in turn hire teachers.

Get out of the way Obama, we don't need you to pick the winners and the losers.

We don't want to buy what your selling.

Cash for solar panels? ($538 million) cash for clunkers, cash for appliances, but NO help for homeowners?

Good thing NASA been cut, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out, this administration should have helped the homeowners; it's the only Job base we have left, Every other manufacturing job went overseas. DOH!

It's one thing to lose your

Red Planet — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 04:29:57 +0000

In reply to Doing Two Things at Once: Jobs and Housing as Routes Out of Recession?

It's one thing to lose your ass on a home. Quite another to lose your ass and your home at the same time.

Keeping homeowners in their homes would have been, and still might be, the best thing this administration could do for itself. Not to mention, of course, that it would be an enormous boon to the country.

What I see each morning

Dan Kervick — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:48:47 +0000

In reply to Doing Two Things at Once: Jobs and Housing as Routes Out of Recession?

What I see each morning stands as a daily reminder of the scale and character of the recession that still besets us. What I see each morning reminds me that we are currently suffering not just a jobs crisis but also a crisis of homes.

I think an interesting feature of your account lies in that little phrase "What I see."

Take a look at this recent post by Jared Bernstein, and scan down to the third chart - the one that shows changes in real household income since 1999. The median income decile has seen their real income fall by 7% in just over a decade. At the bottom of the income scale it is even worse. That's a massive decline in standards of living. Some people in this society can see life getting worse. They can see the American Dream slipping away from all but the fortunate few, day after day, at an obvious and discernable pace. Since people tend to live among others in the same economic class, they see the devastation visiting their neighbors' households as well - including the abandoned households.

But the 90th decile? Barely a jot or tittle of change. If you're at the top of the income scale, you're saying, "What's all the fuss about? My life is as good as it's always been. So are my neighbors' lives. The complainers are babies."

These people - the ones who don't see any devastation around them because it isn't happening near them - are the people who run our political world. They provide the lion's share of funding to campaigns; they are the pontificators and editors in the major media. They are the key figures in the knowledge class, and the key manufacturers of conventional wisdom. They are the people surrounding the President.

Obama stated ? I want to be

Resistance — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:18:59 +0000

In reply to Doing Two Things at Once: Jobs and Housing as Routes Out of Recession?

Obama stated “ I want to be very clear about what this plan will not do. It will not rescue the unscrupulous or irresponsible by throwing good taxpayer money after bad loans.

President Obama; REALLY? THROWING $535 MILLION DOLLARS INTO A STARTUP COMPANY that had red flags all over it? Money THAT COULD HAVE BEEN USED TO ASSIST HOMEOWNERS? That personifies IRRESPONSIBLE (IMHO)

“Solyndra, a startup solar panel maker …………. declared bankruptcy on August 31, ……….. It is the beneficiary of a stimulus-backed $535 million loan guarantee from DOE, made in 2009. Supposedly a flagship of the administration's policies, ………..instead gave it a black eye.”

http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/president-obama-has-inextricably-linked.php?ref=fpb

From my perspective Obama wants housing prices to fall further.

The jobs that are likely to come back are low paying jobs, or Obama will push for more amnesty for undocumented (illegal) workers. (More workers than demand and wages go lower, as we fight for the crumbs.)

Housing prices will need to be lower; so all these new and old, low wage earners (slaves) can afford their own housing. Relieving the plantation owners of providing shelter?

You workers say you need shoes? I remember reading or I heard; the Vietnamese make a good cheap pair? Maybe NIKE knows?

Then corporations can return to the US, because we’ll have a slave class too; just like the rest of the world. Making us more competitive in the labor market.

In America, the slaves provide their own shelter and buy their own coverings, (Cha Ching, cha ching,.... the sound of profits)

WTF; ............WIN the race to the bottom?

WTCF ....WHIP THE CANNON FODDER