Friday, September 03, 2010

The Double-Dip And Its Discontents

The double-dip has begun in earnest.  One indicator is the slow upcreep in joblessness:

Job losses continued to mount in the U.S. economy last month, though at a more modest pace than expected, putting further pressure on policy makers to take action to spur growth and employment.

The Washington economic wizards are hard at work to find some way to stop this slide:

Administration officials have been huddling almost continuously during the past week, brainstorming for ideas that would boost employment without hiking the massive federal deficit — with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner rushing to the West Wing for further consultations late Thursday.

This is the same team that is about to hand a financial loss to taxpayers on the upcoming IPO of GM.  The car market's maturity combined with the onrushing double-dip means the stock market will underperform for years to come, so unwinding the rest of Treasury's GM holdings will deliver nothing but losses to taxpaying suckers.  Thanks for nothing, Uncle Sam.

One official admits she is not an economist but says "jobs are out there."  Tell that to the millions of Millennials who will underemployed for a decade thanks to boomers who saved nothing for retirement. 

Fighting economic currents is like fighting a force of nature.  The best strategy for success is to plan for survival and rebuilding after the storm passes rather than trying to stop the storm itself.  We need meteorologists, not economists.  They'd probably forecast stormy weather.