Much of the world has been affected by deeply the recession that began in the U.S. late in 2007. Some countries have had it worse than others (such as Greece), while there are some countries have seen some economic growth (like Germany in recent months).
But China doesn't seem to be losing a beat, though NY Times columnist Paul Krugman suggests today some of that success might be due to their manipulation of their currency, leading to an even bigger trade deficit than before with the U.S.
On Saturday, officials in China announced that industrial production was up 139% from a year ago in August, and up from 13.4% in July. As the Wall Street Journal reports:
The positive news from China contrasts with the loss of momentum in other major economies. Data from the U.S. have been generally weak in recent months, with unemployment stuck at high levels. Concerns about the outlook in Europe are also rising despite better-than-expected performance from Germany, and Japan recently unveiled another stimulus package to support its flagging recovery.
On Sunday two key Obama advisers, newly installed head of the Council on Economic Advisers, Austan Goolsby and political guru David Axelrod, weren't about to answer the questions posed to them that all Americans want to know: when is unemployment going to start going down in this country?
On ABC's This Week, Goolsbee wasn't going to be caught doing what Christina Romer, who he succeeds did, which was to put an exact figure on unemployment when the Obama administration was touting the benefits of the stimulus:
GOOLSBEE: It's going to stay high. This recession is the deepest in our lifetimes, the deepest since 1929. If you take the people thrown out of work in the 1982 recession, the 1991 recession, the 2001 recession, not only is this bigger, this is bigger than all of those combined. So more than 8 million people lost their jobs. It's going to take a significant push on our part and time before that comes down. I don't anticipate it coming down rapidly.
AMANPOUR: So this week, though, the president did announce some $200 billion in tax breaks, also the $50 billion in stimulus for infrastructure building. How many jobs, do you think, that that's going to create?
GOOLSBEE: Well, obviously depends on how you do it, but it could have a significant impact on trying to get investment in factories, in — by small businesses, in buying equipment, research and development, job creation in this country. That's the key.
AMANPOUR: Do you have sort of a target number?
GOOLSBEE: I definitely do not want to speculate on that, but I will say, the point that we must have, the point of those policies, they aren't spending. They're the government giving tax cuts to businesses to invest in this country. That's what they are. And we cannot have a sustained recovery without the private sector standing up, so the president knows that and has said it many times.
AMANPOUR: And just briefly as we close, a new report is basically saying that the number of American people living in poverty is about to rise from something like 13.2 percent to 15 percent, back to the 1960 levels, which led to the national war on poverty.
What can you do in this climate to affect that?
GOOLSBEE: Look, I think the number one thing you can do to address poverty also is the way you address unemployment and the way you address the squeeze of the middle class, that is get the economy growing and get people back to work, so the kinds of policies the president is putting forward are quite different than what's coming from the other side. They are let's try to find this broad middle ground in which we have targeted incentives for people to do their investment in this country, not somewhere else. And part of that is infrastructure. Part of that is research and development, and part of that is just old-fashioned moxie, let's get the private sector stood up so that they can, you know, carry us out of this.
While on NBC's Meet The Press, adviser David Axelrod (who must be losing his weight, as his jacket seemed quite roomy on him), was cornered by host David Gregory on how every Democrat seems to be running away from the federal health care reform bill, as opposed to championing it:
MR. GREGORY: Why is it that the president has failed to win the argument about the benefits of healthcare reform?
MR. AXELROD: Well, first of all, I don't think health care is driving this election, David. And I think the economy is driving this election. People have anxiety about that economy. I'll tell you what they don't want, though. They don't want to go back to a…
MR. GREGORY: Then why did you do health care and spend so much of last year on health care?
MR. AXELROD: They don't want to go back. They don't want, they don't, they don't—well, you know why we worked on health care, because health care was a huge—is and was a huge problem in this country in terms of the cost of it to people and the government, in terms of the relationship between people and their insurance companies. No one wants to go back to a situation where, if you have a pre-existing medical condition, you, you can be deprived of coverage. No one wants to go back to a situation where, if you get seriously ill, you can get thrown off your insurance. Seniors don't want to go back to paying more for their prescription drugs. No one's calling for that, David. And if the Republican Party wants to make the argument that that's what we should do, then they should make it openly and honestly.
MR. GREGORY: But this administration made the argument that part of economic recovery was passing healthcare reform, part of getting the economic fiscal house in order in the government was healthcare reform.
MR. AXELROD: Yes.
MR. GREGORY: And yet Democrats are not campaigning on it because it's so politically toxic. You said that wouldn't be the case. You said it would get more popular…
MR. AXELROD: Well, listen.
MR. GREGORY: …not less.
MR. AXELROD: I, I think it, I think that health care over time is going to become more popular. But people are focused on this economy right now. They've got anxiety about this economy. That's what's, that's what's driving the vote right now, David. And, at the end of the day you, you mention the fiscal, the Congressional Budget Office and every objective observer who's looked at it has said that this will save a trillion dollars over the course of the next couple of decades or more in our, in our—in budget deficits. And that's an important part of this. So we have to think long as well as short
Meanwhile, what's being trumpeted as the main news squeezed out of any of the Sunday shows was CBS's
This article appears in Sep 9-15, 2010.