In This Together
By ROGER COHEN
Nine months into his administration, President Obama has had a hard time delivering. Washington politics are still ugly. The taxpayer-funded economic recovery, such as it is, has accentuated rather than eased inequalities. Wall Street and Main Street are more estranged than ever. Guys with families and no jobs (most of the 8 million job losses have been male) see bankers back on the fat-bonus gravy train.
David Hale, a Chicago-based economist, told me that U.S. employment had declined at a much faster rate than national output (6 percent versus 3.8 percent) since the Great Recession began, whereas in Germany and Japan the job losses have been just a fraction of the falls in output.
In other words, U.S. corporate management has used the crisis to slash jobs well beyond what economic decline strictly demanded — ruthless prudence, they would argue. Elsewhere on earth job preservation has been a priority.
Hale called the resultant rise in American productivity “stunning.” U.S. businesses are more competitive than ever, which could eventually bring jobs. But for now, the newly jobless ask, “What recovery? What justice?”
“If managements are raising profits by cutting jobs, and that gives them a stock market gain of 55 percent, in the end you’re magnifying inequality,” Hale said.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Newsvine
Furl
Google
Yahoo
