Continuing my ponderings on what we know, how we know it, what it all means and the choices we make as citizens based on this meaning.
Consider these statistics:
- unemployment was 6.3% when Pres Biden took office
- the Congressional Budget Office calculated it would take until the end of 2023 to get to 4.6%
- we hit 4.6% yesterday after adding 531,000 new jobs in October
Markets are man-made. They don't have a life of their own. Government policy steers them and, in the best nations, helps to protect its citizens from being chewed up by the greed of uncontrolled markets.
Thus my favorite quote from the past few days:
“Bold fiscal policy works,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote on Twitter. “A rebound like this was never a foregone conclusion. When our administration took office back in January, there was a real risk that our economy was going to slip into a prolonged recession. Now our recovery is outpacing other wealthy nations’.”
Remember that when Republicans decry interventions such as the American Rescue Plan, the Build Back Better Plan, and vaccine mandates as "socialism" they are really saying: do not redistribute our wealth! We are entitled to being the 2% who control 16x as much wealth is 50% of all Americans!
Worse, Republicans' labeling of government interventions and protections on behalf of 98% of all Americans has racist roots. It began post reconstruction in the south as a way to deny that Black citizens and poor white workers should have the vote and create public services that would benefit them and all. (historical fact h/t Heather Cox Richardson)
The greatest eras of prosperity in this nation were created by Democrat AND Republican presidents in the period spanning FDR to Johnson. This broader-based prosperity was largely the result of government policies and programs.
Don't let the rich folx of any party fool you. Smart government fiscal, treasury, AND legislative policy is what builds prosperity beyond Wall Street (89% of whose stocks are owned by the 10% of wealthiest Americans, BTW). The stock market won't save us. But good government might.
And late breaking news related to this: check out this very cool "Cognitive Bias Codex"! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Cognitive_bias_codex_en.svg?utm_campaign=Recomendo&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter
And this! the economy is getting better, why do we think it is getting worse?! https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/06/upshot/inflation-psychology-economy.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20211107&instance_id=44834&nl=todaysheadlines®i_id=63630&segment_id=73779&user_id=7abe35e910d636e32eee15d3dcaa3063
#protectvotingrights for all today.
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