My Career Diva is my editorial muse. Really Eve has such a passion for what she does and to hear she is hot for some short labor guy is almost too much to bear. But since she is so writing love letters I thought I would help her get the word out. Eve has contributed so many articles for my CCIE Flyer I thought I might hook her up. I know her husband Andy though, and he might come after me!
Love letter to a little labor guy.
by Eve Tahmincioglu
My husband may not appreciate this post, but I have strong feelings for another man.
I was watching Barack Obama’s first press conference where he was flanked by a medley of economic experts but because there were twenty people standing up on the stage, the experts on the far sides were not in view on television.
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal had a panoramic photograph of the conference including all the economic brains and I shouted out in glee when I saw Robert Reich, the diminutive, former labor secretary under the Clinton administration.
Remember him? He was the guy who implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act.
I’m not one of those women who has crushes on movie stars. Brad Pitt doesn’t do much for me, but Reich, man, he’s the cat’s pajamas.
Reich has long known that the American economy was heading for a big brick wall. He has been warning all of us for years that the gap between rich and poor, consumerism, and deregulation were a toxic brew that would come back to haunt us.
March of 2007, he told us to watch out from government officials powwowing with Wall Street about giving the securities sector even more freedom to do what they want:
Top Bushies, including Cheney and Treasury Secretary Paulson, are talking with Wall Street honchos this week about how to make life easier for the securities industry by getting rid of some post-Enron regulations and shielding the industry from liability from shareholder lawsuits. The thinly-veiled rationale for this mutual kiss-up is that American securities markets are supposedly becoming less competitive in world markets.
In an NPR commentary from November 2005, he predicted an impending end to the debt-laden American spending party:
American families have exhausted all the coping mechanisms we’ve been using for years to spend more.
The first coping mechanism, which began decades ago when mens’ hourly wages first began dropping, was for spouses to go into paid work. But now that most adult women are on payrolls – including even the mothers of toddlers – this strategy has generated just about all the cash it can.
How else to pay for more spending? The second coping mechanism has been to work longer hours. This past year, the typical working American put in two full weeks more at the office or factory than was the case two decades ago. Americans are now working harder than even the notoriously industrious Japanese. But we’ve reached the limit. I mean, we have to sleep.
Which brings us to the third coping mechanism – taking equity out of our homes. Last year alone, Americans pulled out $600 billion through refinancing. But this cash machine is also about depleted because housing values have leveled off and mortgage rates are rising.
Where else to find the money? The final coping mechanism is to go deeper into debt. For five years now, American households have spent more money than they’ve earned – pushing their debt to a record high. But we’ve hit the wall here, too, folks. Interest payments on all that debt are exploding.
On top of that, there are tens of millions of baby boomers within sight of retirement. They have to start saving, or else their twilight years will be spent in darkness.
Put it all together and you see why we’re running on empty. We’re busted. We’ve exhausted all the coping mechanisms for spending more. Our buying binge has to come to an end.
His book, “Supercapitalism,” makes a case for how our desire for cheap stuff has put us at odds with what most of us needed for financial viability — jobs in America that paid a fair wage.
And his blog has been a great place to get a reality check on economic news in this country.
Today’s post is titled, “The Mini Depression and the Maximum-Strength Remedy,” examines what needs to be done to help us out of this economic mess:
The hawks will argue that the nation can’t afford giant deficits, especially when baby boomers are only a few years away from retiring and claiming Social Security and Medicare.
They’re wrong. Government spending that puts people back to work and invests in the future productivity of the nation is exactly what the economy needs right now. Deficit numbers themselves have no significance. The pertinent issue is how much underutilized capacity exists in the economy. When there’s lots of idle capacity, deficit spending is entirely appropriate, as John Maynard Keynes taught us. Moving the economy to fuller capacity will of itself shrink future deficits.
Now you see why I’m ga-ga over this man, and why I was excited to see he has Obama’s ear.
If only I could get Reich to whisper a few economic sweet nothings into my ear. (Only kidding Andy.)
Eve Tahmincioglu, known as the CareerDiva, is a well known journalist, author, and columnist. Her writings include 'From the Sandbox to the Corner Office: Lessons Learned on the Journey to the Top'. She is the 'Your Career' columnist for MSNBC.com.
CCIEFLYER wishes to thank her for contributing this article.
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