I've been kicking the horrific numbers of proposed jobs lost during the past week around in my head.

 On Monday morning, we started the week with announcements from a number of companies that 43,000 jobs were going to be cut; later in the day that number was revised upwards to 70,000. That is one hell of way to start the week.

We hear on Friday that the new number of jobs lost would be in the neighborhood of 100,000, that's one hell of a neighborhood and it seems that the light at the end of the tunnel just may be an oncoming train.

I am not an economist, but  I am beginning to think that of all jobs in the world, the only ones that fail upwards are the pundit class, Wall Street CEO's and economists. Nice gig if you can get it.  

The sectors involved are varied; from Caterpillar, Inc. to Pfizer, from Boeing to Chico's, a Fort Myers, Fl. women's clothing outlet. That last one may not seem important, but if you're one of the 500 who will lose their jobs, it's important enough.

It's clear that before things get better, they are going to get a bit worse. According to CNNMoney .com on January 29:

·         The U.S. economy lost 2.6 million jobs in 2008, according to government reports. This includes 21,137 mass layoffs, a seven-year high. In a mass layoff, 50 or more workers are laid off at a time.

And from the same piece:

·         The job market isn't expected to get any better any time soon. The Council Board forecast two million job losses for 2009.

I know I may have taken a rather circuitous route to get to the title of this post, but it seems to me that wedapeople could or perhaps should do more to register our discontent.

From the AP: January 31, 2009

MOSCOW -- Thousands of protesters rallied against the government in cities across Russia on Saturday, reflecting mounting anger over the nation's economic woes.

The protests, among the largest yet, posed a challenge to the Kremlin, which faced little threat from the fragmented opposition during the years of oil-driven boom.

The largest march took place in the far eastern port of Vladivostok, where about 3,000 people denounced the Cabinet's decision to increase tariffs on imported cars. Some shouted slogans urging Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign.

And from FT.com:

By Ben Hall in Paris

Published: January 29 2009 09:11 | Last updated: January 29 2009 23:17

At least a million striking workers held demonstrations across France on Thursday in protest at the government's reform programme and its response to the economic crisis, demanding extra help for ordinary families in place of state aid for the banks.

 

Now, I'm not sure if the Russian and the French protests will bring about the needed changes, but I have to believe that, at least in the case of the French, mobilizing one to two million people to take to the streets will at a minimum bring to the table some strength in negotiations.

In the case of the Russian protests, Putin has to take into consideration that Russian workers are not to be taken lightly.

Now that we have a new administration in place, we must keep their feet to the fire. President Obama has his Economic team in place and I think he deserves some time to try and wrap his head around the problem at hand.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt, but I must say that I am somewhat underwhelmed by his choice at Treasury and about some of his advisors.  Larry Summers has already made his presence felt in the under emphasis on infrastructure spending and Geithner has been handed the wheel to the shipwreck he failed to see coming. These are people who for the most part live in an echo chamber reinforcing their own ideas and sadly, not allowing different ideas to find root in their imaginations.

They take to the streets, we email...one of the demands of the French workers is that the government provide... 'extra help for ordinary families in place of more state aid for banks'...what a concept.

I do not pretend to know who the French classify as "ordinary families', but I would suspect that their measuring stick is very much like ours, people who do what is expected of them, and in return they expect the  government do what is expected of it.

The Russian protests are demanding that the government step down because of the worsening economic conditions. They were met by riot police

They take to the streets...we email.

 

I honestly believe that except for a handful of people in the upper reaches of government, especially our representatives, have no first hand clue what it means to be without a job, to not know if the next decision is to pay the mortgage or buy medicine. Let's not forget that some of the most vociferous rants against universal health care are from the very same Senators and Representatives that receive the health care they would deny the rest of the population.

The very people who are in charge of the economy are, for the most part, members of the same country clubs as the bankers they are trying keep afloat. It's a funny thing when I read or hear that such and such bank, insurance company, brokerage house is too big to fail, and yet they get bigger and bigger and yet, still they fail.

 

They protest...we email.

 

The last eight years have for the most part been part and parcel; a massive exercise in greed and manipulation. From the highest reaches of government and finance, we have witnessed excesses that were the norm back in the days of the robber barons.

The rampant abuses are reminiscent of an uglier time in our history; the arrogance of wealth and power is now seen as the perks of being one of 'the boys'. This arrogance is seen daily in our political leaders and the so-called giants of Wall Street.

In 2000, George W. Bush was selected as the heir to the Presidency; just as in some of Europe's oldest monarchies, ability was trumped by being a member of the lucky sperm club. As is the norm in monarchies, one's aptitude or lack of same only becomes a problem when one is called to perform above one's ability, and as he have seen over the past years, he fails stupendously.

As an electorate, we missed the opportunity to 'throw the bums out' and instead chose to 'stay the course' and returned the same idiots to office and expected a different outcome; a sure sign of electoral insanity.

Many of us were criticized for our lack of enthusiasm for our elected officials, the problems in government were manifold; unqualified people were making decisions that would have a lasting effect on us. The Abu Grahib and Katrina scandals laid bare the horrible truth. We were on a ship without a rudder.

In 2006, it seemed like we were coming to our senses, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives was replaced by a Democratic one, but it was still business as usual.

Which brings us to the 2008 election, on the Republican side, it seemed like they were all trying to bring us kicking and screaming into the nineteenth century with their emphasis on more laizzes-faire economics and a nativist turn that would have scared even the Know-Nothings.  I would not have been surprised to see the retread of the Alien and Sedition Act of the eighteenth century.

Then came Barack Obama...skinny black guy from Chicago by way of Hawaii, and Indonesia. A one term U.S. Senator from Chi-Town, he really shook things up.  He denied the heir apparent the chance to run for president (pissin' off a bunch of folks, among them Hillary, Carville, the PUMA's, Chris Matthews, the Sunday Talking Heads, just to name a few).

November 4^th, 2008 and January 20^th, 2009 are days that will be marked forever in the history of the United States; not only did we undo the Republican majorities in both the Senate and the House of Republican, we also managed to elect the skinny guy from Chicago, we also swore him in as the forty-forth President of the United States.

Many things happened in 2008 that made this possible, McCain and Palin, the Wall Street bubble that had been threatening to explode finally burst, and then there was McCain and Palin. I just can't thank that old' maverick enough!

This brings us to the title of this post: The Failed Obama Presidency.

He has been in office for less than ten days and yet we still have all these problems to deal with.

·        Wall Street has not recovered the five thousand points that it lost over the past two years. On the contrary, it seems as if it has stagnated. The Masters of Ponzi, which may be a new post graduate degree, Madoff, Nadel et. al are not in jail, they are under house arrest. Roger Thain, late of Merrill Lynch spends over a million dollars to redecorate his office. All this and more.

·        Universal Health Care has not been passed...we who voted for Obama, must ask ourselves whether or not we have made a colossal error in voting for him. It's called leadership!!

·        The so-called 'Stimulus' bill is still tied up in Congress even though we own the House and the Senate. The fear of being bold seems to have taken hold, now is not the time for the timid.

·        The Middle East in its current iteration is impossible to maintain, the inability to see this problem as a human rights issue is what is clouding the solution. Israel cannot maintain its territorial integrity as it stands today; the risk of a nuclear confrontation is too high. The Palestinians lack an honest broker that can be bold enough to suggest a radical solution. A two state solution is not a solution at all, a negotiated one state solution, in my opinion, is the only way out. It is a bold and radical proposition that deserves a chance.

There is an element of sarcasm in what I call 'The Failed Obama Presidency'; we've become so accustomed to immediate gratification that we've forgotten how long it took us to get into the position we find ourselves in. The issues we face today had its origins during the Reagan administration, they were exacerbated during the first Bush presidency and they were made worse during President Clinton's 'Third Way' when the DLC managed to turn the Democratic Party into republican 'lite'. The dismantling of The New Deal protections for workers continued apace throughout the  Dubya's administration and culminated in what we are facing today, malfeasance on Wall Street, crooked politicians, and ideologically driven opposition whose heroes are small minded and lacking in their civic and patriotic duties.

The Obama Presidency can only succeed if it takes the bull by the horns, this is what I voted for, and it is also what the American people expect from the 'skinny black guy from Chicago.

 

There you have it...or not.

Update: The House passed stimulus bill along party lines.

 Cross Posted at: http://betweentheheavensandthesky.blogspot.com/