This spring I planted some new corn seeds in my garden. Unfortunately, crows spotted the small shoots coming up. They pulled them up and ate the plump corn seeds that were attached. Two weeks later I replanted the corn patch and the same thing happened. I didn't yet realize that the world of my garden had changed and that I couldn't plant corn successfully without addressing the crow problem.
The economists who advise our presidents also have a blind spot. They have seen the trade deficits eat up Bush's stimulus plan, and they are starting to see the trade deficits eat up Obama's recovery plan, but they are determined not to change America's unilateral free trade policy.
Two weeks ago the latest new jobless numbers gave them hope. Alan Rapaport briefly expressed that hope in his Financial Times piece on June 12:
The number of US workers claiming unemployment benefits for the first time eased last week, official figures showed yesterday, raising hopes that the worst could be over for the country's savaged labour force.
New jobless claims fell by 24,000 to 601,000 in the week ending June 6, the labour department said.
Jump ahead to this week. Christopher S. Rugaber reported for the Associated Press:
The [US Labor] department said initial claims for jobless benefits rose last week by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 627,000.
Two weeks ago, some economists were seeing the green shoots of the coming recovery. They were excited by a fall in new jobless claims from 625,000 to 601,000. But last week, new jobless claims rose to 627,000 as the black crows of recession ate up those shoots.
After my corn shoots got eaten twice, I switched to Plan B. I planted broccoli and cabbage plants in the same garden and put up aluminum scarers to keep the wild animals out. So far, those plants are thriving
Incompetent economists keep thinking that you can stimulate an economy that is in a recession caused by trade deficits without addressing the trade deficits. They jump at the slightest variation in the latest bad news in hopes that their incomplete theories will somehow start to work. When will they face the fact that Bush and Obama's Plan A (fixing the banks and government deficit spending) has failed?
It's time for a Plan B which addresses the underlying economic problem, the trade deficits that are gobbling the manufacturing sector out of our economy. Until the leak is patched, no stimulus plan will succeed in blowing up our economic tire. Last week, we suggested a Plan B that would actually work in our American Thinker commentary.
