Aug 26, 2011

More on Ben's Big Day in Beaver Country

Once in a while even the financial press gets things right. For instance, a report on what Fed Boss Ben might say in Jackson Hole this morning:

Economists said that the recent weakness in the economy stems from structural issues like foreclosed properties and an unskilled pool of unemployed labor that are immune from monetary policy stimulus.


Nailed it. The pool includes those famous young men who speak Ebonic, not to mention equally untalented alabasters, many with cool PhDs in, like, English Lit. (You want fries with your Bullwer-Lytton?)


If Washington and the state capitals leave things alone,  foreclosed properties will in due course become unforeclosed. They will  again trade briskly at their market value. If this means $40,000 for a six-bedroom stunner with lots of granite and travertine, so be it.


The pool of chronic unemployables  is a tougher problem,  but we might start by repealing minimum wage laws as they apply to apprentice arrangements.


We might also start by worshipping a damned good mechanic at least as much as we do a mediocre professor of Sanskrit.  


Mr. Goodwrench can thrive in the free market.  (He can read Marlowe in his spare time if he's so inclined.) 


But In 99 cases out of a hundred, the professor shares a trait with the welfare queen; like her, he can wax fat only at the public trough. 







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