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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Save or Create 3 Million Jobs

President Barack Obama has pledged repeatedly that the $800 billion stimulus bill he is about to sign will either “save or create” 4 million jobs.

What does that mean exactly? Will 3 million jobs be saved and 1 million created? Will 500,000 be saved and 3.5 created? At last, we have clarity:

“The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create 3 to 4 million jobs,” Obama says in his weekly radio and YouTube address. “Ninety percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector. The remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities.”

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

It’s the Economy, Stupid

I just hope that the $800 billion stimulus package jumpstarts the economy long before 2010. If people don’t have health insurance, jobs, homes or enough to eat, that could trigger a situation close to the French Revolution.

This time, as with that time,  people will not be assuaged by the privileged swatting away the concerns of the masses. Companies such as  CitiGroup, AIG and Goldman Sachs, among all the others that benefit from people’s late payments on mortgages and credit cards with untenably high interest rates, don’t deserve the break they are getting.

If relief is not at hand, something else will be: a deep and dangerous sense of discontent.