Passing head wind

As the Labor Department released its latest dismal statistics about America’s 8.2% unemployment rate, the Obama campaign is pedaling furiously to defend his record in office. “We’re fighting our way back,” Obama pleaded on a campaign stop in Minnesota. “Our economy is still facing serious head winds.”

He blames the current lack of gains in the jobs market on “high gas prices” and the European debt crisis. Of course, there’s also the ever-popular blame on George W. Bush, as Obama continues to maintain that this crisis has nothing to do with him, as it all started with Bush. Be that as it may, at some point the bad economy stops becoming the fault of the previous administration and becomes the responsibility of the current officeholder. All we’ve heard from Obama for the past 42 months is how nothing is his fault and all the responsibility lies elsewhere. This is a far cry from a previous Democrat president who clearly stated that “the buck stops here,” meaning at the Oval Office.

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In addition to Bush, the high price of gas and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, Obama also blamed Congress for not passing his so-called “jobs bill.” At what point will Obama stand up and accept responsibility for how badly his policies have affected life in America? Did the $700 billion “shovel ready” infrastructure stimulus create one documented new job? Or was a massive taxpayer rip off to take care of the Democrats’ friends? What about Quantitative Easing (QE) that saw an artificial increase in the money supply facilitated by the Fed creating new money? Did it improve the economy? Apparently not, as a second injection of $ 600 billion was deemed essential to stimulate the economy (QE2). Now there’s talk of QE3, meaning QE2 was a bust. All these policies were championed by Obama, yet he won’t accept responsibility for their lack of effectiveness. Rather than finding convenient scapegoats for the shortcomings of his policies, Obama would be well advised to take some basic lessons in economics. One such lesson is about the destructive effects that uncertainty has on an economy. If entrepreneurs do not know how some new government policies taking effect in the future will affect the cost of labor, it’s a sure bet that they aren’t going to be hiring a lot of new workers until such time as they do know. That’s one of the devastating effects Obamacare has had on America’s economy. Another lesson in basic economics is that too many government regulations have a perverse effect on business. Currently governments at all levels are creating ever greater bureaucracies that burden business with ever more rules and regulations, sucking the lifeblood out of the entrepreneurial spirit. A good place to start stimulating the economy might be to abolish a few levels of bureaucracy so that businesses can prosper, grow and thus create more jobs, rather than slavishly devote precious resources satiating bureaucratic hunger pangs. Declaring war on one sector of the economy is also a sure fire way to slow the growth of jobs. There’s no telling how many jobs Obama’s silly war on carbon has forfeited, all in support of scientific evidence that becomes more questionable by the day. Oil, gas and coal companies may not be as cool or sexy as wind turbines or solar panels. But by God, they’re economically viable and essential to the economy. Maybe it’s time for Obama to encourage drilling for more oil instead of blaming the high price of gas on the lack of jobs. If in fact the high price of gas adversely affects the creation of new jobs, then it stands to reason that increasing the supply of oil will lower the price of gas and thus increase the rate at which new jobs are created. Yes, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe will definitely and adversely affect the world economy, but America has a debt crisis of its own, most of which was created by the current occupant of the White House. Greece’s government debt runs to a per capita sum of about $43,000. America’s per capita debt is substantially larger, coming in at about $48,000. What will happen to the world economy when America defaults on its sovereign debt? Will it still be Bush’s fault? Clearly, there is no dispute that the economy is facing serious head winds. However, the foulest and most noxious head wind seems to be that being passed by Obama himself.