More pessimism about the economy

Check out this link to a story by Matt Miller at the Center for American Progress. Basically, he says that the bursting of the housing bubble and the near-crash of the economy was like a heart attack, and our responses like TARP and the stimulus were like emergency medicine. The longer-term, more ingrained problem of the U.S.'s decline in terms of innovation and production -- and the resulting hits to the U.S. middle class -- are more like a cancer that demands a radical response. Basically, he calls for "creat(ing) capital-intensive jobs that have labor productivity levels consistent with advanced country incomes," and making sure Americans have the skills to perform these jobs. I'm not quite sure what the first one means, except it sounds like it takes into account the need for jobs to actually pay a living wage. Miller notes that we're doing "dismally" on these important tasks, because political leaders simply won't face up to them. See the article here:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/21/AR2010072103052.html

Also, on the topic of educating Americans to have the necessary skills, see this article about how the U.S.'s worldwide ranking of the number of 25- to 34-year olds with college degrees has fallen from first to twelfth. The article also says that the problem begins long before college. I'm sure the cost of post-secondary education has something to do with it as well. And our friendly neighbor Canada is number one! Read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/education/23college.html?hpw

So...we have a lot of work to do, but we seem to lack the political climate for getting much done. I take that back, because Obama has actually gotten an amazing amount done given the political climate. But there's so much animosity and contention. I guess we need to keep on moving forward, regardless.