Come n' join de mob..Of those without a job~

At first I was going to write a posting about President Obama bowing to congressional Republicans and some business leaders by choosing to scrap his administration's earlier plans to tighten smog rules. ("Obama overruled the Environmental Protection Agency — and the unanimous opinion of its independent panel of scientific advisers — and directed administrator Lisa Jackson to withdraw the proposed regulation to reduce concentrations of ground-level ozone, smog's main ingredient." --AP)

But then I remembered A&G is not an environmental blog.

And it is not a blog meant to document every time the President Caves in... Because if we were, we would have written a posting about the President's capitulation to the Republicans to change his jobs-creation speech to Congress next Thursday at 7p vs originally Wednesday at 8p.  And we can't forget last December when Obama conceded that the Bush tax cuts were to be extended a year, or last month during the Debt Ceiling debates when the President caved and agreed no tax increases for the wealthy or benefits extensions for unemployed.

Ultimately I choose to write this posting on jobs.  It was announced today that Zero jobs were created in August.   Yes... Zero.   Also previous months' jobs reports numbers were properly readjusted...  "117,000 jobs (created in July) originally announced was cut to 85,000, while June's number fell from 46,000 to a mere 20,000. That makes four consecutive months of sub-100,000 job growth when most economists believe that 150,000 is the minimum number needed to reduce the unemployment rate meaningfully." --- CNBC

But as many in finance media would say, 'Hey, at least its not negative, right?'

Still in every economic article, one can always find gallow's humor, like CNBC's article stating that these terrible, terrible economic figures are "fueling concerns that the US is heading for another recession." Umm, yeah.. right.. sure...   Its like the bad joke of the stubborn surgeon looking at his patient on the operating table not breathing for 10minutes and then declaring to the nurse, "If he doesn't start breathing in 5 more minutes, I may have to pronounce the patient dead"

Markets went down today 253pts.. something like that...yawn~  If Wall St really was reacting to the news in sincerity, the dropoff would have/should have been 500-600pts. So I'm treating it more as a profit take-in day rather than true reaction to the jobs picture.  Quite often, negative economic data has been released on job loss, home devaluation and such and the market reacts with a spike of a few hundred points.  This is usually what happens when something is completely disconnected from another.

So how to fix the joblessness problem?

Pretty simple really.. one of three things need to occur:

1)  Major job creation on Government level like during FDR in a wide, diverse range of areas from engineering to education; technology to the arts.  Like FDR once said (paraphrasing) - 'If the private sector is unable or unwilling to create jobs, then I will'

2)  Laws must be created or enforced if on books already, that compel i.e. force businesses with the financial means to hire, to do so.   Corporations in total are hoarding over $2 trillion dollars in cash and leaving it in banks or their own stocks rather than using on hiring or domestic expansion.  Of course they much rather expand business and hire in tiny 3rd world nations where workers are getting pennies.  So many companies are financially capable of hiring-- they're just unwilling.

Brief aside: As many know, AT&T is trying to acquire T-Mobile but it has to go through government approval because the successful sale would mean less competition and ultimately higher prices for people to have cellphones.  So as an 11th hour 'bone' to try to entice the government to approve the deal, AT&T said in exchange for passing this deal, they would bring back 7,000 call-center jobs to the US from overseas.   Isn't that nice.. Aww~    We've gotten to a point where American jobs are openly used as bargaining chips.

3) Combination of 1 & 2

~ Are You ready for some Football?

I have no idea what Obama will say during his "Important" speech to Congress on Thursday which was adjusted to 7p  (4p Pacific) so he wouldn't conflict with NFL football.  I know what I do not want to hear-- things such as tax breaks for corporations and the rich, or any other 'trickle-down' nonsense.  I also do not want to hear any projections for job creation by 2015 or 2025... And I absolutely do not want to hear any invocations about 9/11, patriotism, the American "spirit" or any garbage about how America is the Greatest nation or #1...  We're not.   If America was #1, our economy would be strong and thriving and the jobs speech would be completely unnecessary.

What I want to hear is a concrete plan with realistic specifics mixed based on achievable goals to help people now... today!   Of course, the chances of anything bold being passed in a divided Congress are very slim, but at the very least, I want to hear a plan.

And based on today's jobless numbers, I'm not alone.