Where do We go from here?

This article actually says very little, but at least gives the Readers some focus for Research. I personally would like to find some Plant-Closing follow-ups, finding the Re-Hire rates among Workers combined with their migration patterns since the Closing or Downsizing. One of the important Questions to be answered consists of whether Re-Hires can manage to stay within their Specialties, or must accept employment outside their fields; simply to understand the value of intense specialization. It would be equally nice to develop a model equating the Production potential of transferred labor; a young graduate Student could make his name with an effective evaluation of production potentials. I think We are in the Best of Times for economic comparisons, if only economics Instructors would get their Graduate Students fired up for the task. Take careful notice of the fact that this burned up old bum has not outlined any labor for himself; Instructors need to learn to delegate labor.

Study these graphs from Menzie Chinn. If these are the types of pretty pictures that you like to draw, then the economics profession needs you! The graphs may seem a little downbeat, but if you have lost your Job, there is no reason to smile anyway. It is obvious We are not getting to where We wish to be by our Stimulus program. The basic reason behind this failure lies, to my Thought, in concentration on preservation of current high-priced Specialized Labor, rather than massive redeployment of lower-Cost general labor in localized projects; the type of labor which is only short-term and temporary, but which gets a increased level of general Consumption which is needed. We need a Window of less than a Year duration of prior Consumption performance to kick-start the economy. Will We get it–Doubtful!

I will finish today’s Post with this link. Read the last paragraph quite carefully! There will be a lack of sustainability without an increase in Consumption, and the boost in Inventory will only provide a short blast of little more than one Quarter. We need that boost in Consumption Now, and there is nothing in place to produce it. We will be at an end of Business-incited Stimulus by the end of Spring, and there will not likely be further business-generated Stimulus for a likely following two-year Period. Government is not going to get anything done quick enough to utilize the natural Stimulus of industry in the time frame expressed, and business will let this Period go unnoticed. I would suggest a economy-wide Sale, cutting the per Product Profit from Sales by 50%–to get the Consumers into the Stores–but it will not happen. lgl