Bad News on Jobs

We need to stop quoting Winston Churchill and get over our Socialism problem. Many millions of people speak proudly of their welfare state and rightfully so.

Perhaps Joe could explain why, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since 1959 under Republican, private sector job growth is 5.4% while under Democrats it’s 11.7%? I read this over on the dailykos a couple of weeks ago. I sitll say if the public knew about this information, they would never vote for another Republican again.

It appears that, as usual, Joe is talking out of his ass. Isn’t it the Republican’s contention that while government can create some jobs, it’s the private sector and small business that drives the economy? You know…their trickle down bullshit? Now, the rich got 2 tax cuts under Bush yet, over 8 years they didn’t create any jobs.From ThinkProgress:2000s a ‘lost decade’ for U.S. economy, workers.”The decade that just ended has been the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times by a wide range of data, with zero net job growth and the slowest rise in economic output since the 1930s. Many who stayed employed were hurt too, with middle-income families making less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — the first decade since the 1960s that median incomes have fallen. On balance, American families were worse off.”Now, how do you suppose Scarborough would explain that?

You know Bob, you can keep whining about Reaganomics, or you can focus on what really brought us to this point. Reaganomics had nothing to do with the asinine tactics of big banks and investment houses betting on too-good-to-be-true securities. That responsibility lies soley with banks and the complete lack of any Federal oversight on CDS. That’s a CURRENT problem, Bob, not one that is twenty-five years old.Why are there no jobs right now? Because SMALL BUSINESSES cannot get loans, and START-UP BUSINESSES cannot get funding. I wrote about this a week ago, Bob, right here, on your blog!Throwing money at this economy isn’t going to help one iota. The money from the stimulus is going to large corporations who already have all the employees they need. So you are throwing money into a money pit.The solution is simple. DIRECT LOANS TO SMALL BUSINESSES FROM THE FED. Bypass banks COMPLETELY. Do not allow them to make “credit decisions” right now. This needs to go from the White House directly into the hands of Main Street.Until our president is willing to do this, jobs will continue to be in short supply.You MUST attack the problem where the actual problem is, and right now, the only sector that can produce jobs quickly enough is the small business sector. As DUMB as this sounds, somehow, this administration has completely forgotten about the one sector that could lift us out of this mess, and chosen to focus instead on their special interests.

As a follow up to my comment, the problem of small business loans has been with us now for over a year. Is there anyone in government who is smart enough to figure out how to solve that, or will we still be talking about this next year at this time?

I’d take PPP’s line one further and say WPA type government hiring if direct funding of small private initiatives fails to provide full employment. This is especially true for energy innovation.

I will probably be slayed here, but I just have to say that small businesses as a whole get way more praise than they should.MANY small businesses suffer or fail, not because of a lack of loans or credit, but because of shitty planning. In defense of the Small Business Association, they provide KICK-ASS resources: online tutorials, webinars, templates, articles, contacts, etc…. Everyone focuses on loans but what more people who want to start a small business SHOULD focus on is: competitive analysis, customer segmentation, one/three/five year budgeting, marketing and hell even RENT. I see more and more failures because someone puts a new coffee shop in the same damn location that four others failed because it’s in the worst place possible for morning commuters, doesn’t have a drive-thru, it’s in a 1 mile radius of TWO Starbuck’s with drive-thrus and different owners have used the existing signage and name of the previously failed business.I want businesses to get loans and credit, but if I were a decision-maker, I would expect a boat-load of research and reality from any business asking me for money. And don’t get me started on f’ing nail salons! Not to mention that some of those employ trafficked women.Sorry, but this issue pisses me off because of how many people I have known who started their own business and didn’t take the time to think it through. That shining object of self-employment blinds foolish people.Jennifer

In all fairness, both Bob and PPP are correct. The job situation we have now is a combo of three things…..the erroneous continued conservative belief in the efficacy of ‘trickle down’ economics begun during Reagan’s time in office that continued through Bush’s tax cuts….the risky dependence on the housing bubble and the resuling sale of mortgage derivatives by wall street….AND the recent failure by the Obama Admin to either force banks to loan money or do it themselves through the SBA. Obama can’t control the past but he sure can do something about jobs right now. I say, if you can’t get something done with the banks, then go around and make them obsolete.

I want to add that I wish Americans would put more energy into demanding more from big businesses in regards to job cuts. Why are we mad at the government for not doing enough while we allow layoffs to go into columns about stats instead of columns addressing poor business decisions? Wall Street firms aren’t the only big businesses, folks. Big businesses all over the country lay people off while still paying CEO’s millions. Why do we shy away from pickting outside of businesses but people are more than willing to rant about the government? Big business gets away with crap because we let them. Just like the Republicans allow insurance and energy companies to say regulation expenses will be passed on to the customer and we don’t challenge that. We should say “Hell, no! If you face penalties YOU will pay for it, not us!” But we allow ourselves to be distracted — looking to the government to create jobs. We should be demanding more of the companies who can afford jobs but waste their money elsewhere.Man, I am in a bad mood, huh?Jennifer

How much is enough lending? Really? Again, people need to do better once they get the loans or what’s the point.”The review determined that both 7(a) and 504lending increased sharply under the Recovery Act—from March 2009 to July 2009, 7(a) and 504 loan approvals jumped 39 percent and 73was significant, both 7(a) and 504 loan approvals remained below 2008 and 2007 levels. Small and medium lenders in the 7(a) program recovered more quickly—with loan activity returning to year-ago levels—and took on a larger share of SBA lending. As a result, loan activity was more widely dispersed under the Recovery Act, with the top 20 lenders accounting for 38 percent of all 7(a) loans (excluding SBAExpress) compared to 53 percent in 2007.The review also found an increased trend toward SBA-approved loans, which could impact Agency staffing requirements and program risk. In the 7(a) program, the number of SBA-approved loans more than doubled from March to July. Without adequate training and supervision, the increased demands on SBA loan center staff could impact the quality of Agency loan reviews. The shift towards SBA-approved loans was also substantial in the 504 program, with the share of Agency-approved loans jumping to 94 percent of total loan approvals, from 80 percent 2 years ago.”http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/oig_nov_2009monthlyupdate.pdf

@Jennifer: You may be in a bad mood, but you’re still right.

@J, I am not always in a bad mood but I am always right. Well, that’s what I tell my husband, anyway.Jennifer

I feel the need to qualify what I said by acknowledging that I support the idea of regional independence/the drastic reduction in the size of the federal govt with most powers given back to the states that is sometimes called the secessionist movement. Therefore, the direct lending I support would be happening through a state bank on the state or town level democratically with a great degree of rigor, transparency and accountability. Just wanted to be clear.

30 years of Saint Ronny’s policies absolutely lead to this situation. Sure, small businesses can’t get loans right now, but what lead to that? 30 years of Reaganomics.30 years of spending on credit30 years of tax cuts for people who dont need them30 years of printing money out of thin air30 years of sloganeering30 years of cutting down social safety nets30 years of obliterating the manufacturing base of the nation30 years of sending jobs overseasI could go on…