The Occupy Wall Street movement demonstrates that the United States still has a Left, despite recent electoral misfortunes, and its weaker political infrastructure. The American Left does not own a television network. It is out-gunned by the sheer number of conservative talk radio shows and stations. Conservative think tanks are less intellectual than [Continue Reading...]
Journalist Don Peck has just written one of the most important books yet published on the Great Recession. Entitled “Pinched: How the Great Recession has narrowed our futures and what we can do about it,” the book does not delve into what caused the downturn, like the countless other books already published on [Continue Reading...]
The American economic picture remains very grim. The recovery from the Great Recession can only be called “tepid” – especially on the job creation front. New cuts in government spending resulting from budget shortfalls are only making matters worse by eliminating more jobs in the short run. At the same time, the nation [Continue Reading...]
“Jobs!” At this juncture of a painfully slow recovery from a major recession, there is little doubt regarding what most North Carolinians wants the most from their public policymakers and the private sector. Those on the political right do not believe that there is much that will deliver the “goods” other than tax and [Continue Reading...]
North Carolina, like most American states, faces a very tough funding future. The state has a large budget shortfall, which it is legally required to close. Hard choices are on the horizon – significant cuts in services and programs and possibly tax and fee hikes. Fortunately, there are some steps that state leaders [Continue Reading...]
Despite the efficacy of the Obama Administration's package in preventing a full-scale Great Depression Number Two and cutting the unemployment rate by a significant factor, it is widely regarded as a political and policy failure. In fact, it can be even regarded as toxic to be too associated with it. This chain of [Continue Reading...]
These are tough times for the jobless. The recovery is weak and is not generating enough jobs so far.
What are we to do address our citizens’ employment worries and realities?
To start, there are limits to what a single state do. North Carolina cannot print money or run a long-term budget deficit. The federal government, in contrast, could and should be doing much more. In particular, the economic stimulus package was much too small, relative to the depth and scale of the downturn.
How do we plan for the next economic downturn? It may seem a trifle premature to be tackling this task. After all, the North Carolina economy is just beginning to start its recovery from the Great Recession. And if the current European slump remains under control, we should be able to count on a sustained, if slow and uneven, economic upturn for some time. [Continue Reading...]
Like a lot of people, I am a big fan of the television show, “Dirty Jobs,†on the Discovery Cable Network. Every week, the show’s host goes out for a day and works at an always challenging, sometimes disgusting and often dangerous job. [Continue Reading...]
The hard truth of the matter is that the vast majority of struggling rural counties will not land a major manufacturer or some other kind of large private facility. In many cases, they will not halt their population decline. In many respects, they will not control their destiny. [Continue Reading...]
Though it was penned nearly half a century ago in support of a losing candidate, many Americans are still familiar with the phrase, authored by speechwriter, Karl Hess, for presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater, which stated: “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.†[Continue Reading...]
The Obama Administration already has a remarkably full plate – health care reform, cap-and-trade climate legislation, financial regulation, immigration policy, et cetera, et cetera. And that’s just on the domestic policy front. [Continue Reading...]
A consulting buddy of mine used to say that “there are three modes of existence in life and in economic development – you can flourish, cope or die.” This is the pickle that both the U.S. and North Carolina find themselves in today as the recession takes its toll in the form of permanent layoffs, rising joblessness and falling incomes and tax receipts.
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Ever since the global capitalist system almost collapsed when Bank of America quaked and Lehman Brothers went under, there has been no shortage of worthwhile books, articles, and pamphlets. Indeed, there has been a virtual deluge of reform prescriptions. [Continue Reading...]
The recent announcement by the Dell Corporation that it was planning to sell its factories to cut costs should have come as no surprise. Today’s new global economy is characterized by a frantic effort by business in thousands of market niches to offer the cheapest, fastest, and/or best product available. Any competitive advantage is short-lived. Even keeping up requires you to stay ahead. [Continue Reading...]
