Donald Barlett: Yeah, you got to..
James Steele: You've got a handful of people, you're right. But... And you've always had that. But the problem is, unless you've got a critical mass of them, it's not going to go anywhere. And we don't see that, unless there's some mystery candidates out there, we don't know about somewhere else in the country. We're just not sure.
Donald Barlett: And you've really got a sense of that by just listening. Everybody continues to be obsessed with the budget deficit. And this isn't to say the budget deficit is irrelevant. It isn't. It does need to be dealt with, but it is not the critical issue today, nor will it be tomorrow, nor next year, or the year after that. The critical issue is this trade deficit in getting jobs that pay serious wages. Because there are other things that are happening in the economy that are going to just... that exacerbate what's going on now. And one of them is, increasingly, more and more, and this is on the factory floor in manufacturing jobs, more and more work is being done, one, by robots, and two, for the longest time robots were concentrated on doing one repetitive job over and over. Now they're doing two, and three, and four jobs. And this is going to have an enormous impact as that process moves from one industry to another. So it's just, not just a case of trade. We've got other problems out there that are resulting in the loss of jobs that need to be dealt with. And that's a little different because you don't want to curtail that kind of creativity, but it means we've got to come up with some other jobs to keep people working.
James Steele: We also make the point in the book that adds to what Don's saying in terms of the deficit. The budget deficit is not, should not really be our prime focus here. I mean, because companies are not re-investing, or are investing in the wrong places, like abroad. We need to invest in this country. I mean something more than this rather modest Stimulus that Obama put forth early in his term. And we have a whole section on it. I mean the country, the infrastructure of the country is falling apart. And this has been happening for decades. That has to do with the country's future. It's not just whether the bridge is safe or not. Everybody agrees that the infrastructure investment has a ripple effect, and creates jobs throughout the economy. So, we think we should be spending more in a whole series of areas like that, and not just roads, and sewers and waterlines, and things like that. But high technology, that works. That's also part of infrastructure, but again as Don was mentioning everybody's so obsessed by the deficit. The deficit hawks [are] running everything, but nobody can spend a thing. We ask people, and the book talks about this. Imagine if these deficit hawks had been in charge of things about 1942 and war breaks out. Military comes in and says we need a thousand bombers. Well, these guys would give them a hundred. I mean if the Navy came in and says we need five hundred ships. These guys would give them fifty. And you know, this is a crisis out there. This is a crisis of not creating jobs. And something needs to be done to stimulate this economy. Beyond this immediate period...
Donald Barlett: [Interjecting] And what the Federal reserve is doing is not going to solve this problem. I mean it will keep interest rates low, but that isn't doing anybody any good other than the few people at the top.
James Steele: They're doing this now, partly in lieu of the fact [that] Congress is doing nothing. I mean that's one of the things that's going on, because nothing else is being done to try and stimulate the country. They're doing this, but that isn't really the way we should be going. We should be figuring out ways to really directly stimulate the economy. Not just..
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
