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What Obama can do to create jobs
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Kai Ryssdal: About that stimulus package, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said today it's her first priority. And as John told us, Obama's already on board with the idea that some kind of package is needed. And Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer explains it'll probably be structured to fit right in with the president-elect's philosophy.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: Obama wants to create a new infrastructure bank to finance projects. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says any stimulus package would include infrastructure spending. Pete Ruane is president of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
Pete Ruane: Over 3,000 projects are ready to go to market. They could let the contracts immediately.
Those projects range from re-surfacing roads to bridge repair. But can patching potholes put us on the road to recovery? David Resler says no. He's chief economist at Nomura Securities, says no. He says the big projects, with the most jobs, take too long to have an immediate impact. Think of the last time you remodeled your kitchen. Resler just re-did his.
David Resler: It took six months of planning to do that -- that's a kitchen in a single family house. It's not a bridge to anywhere that public works projects might be.
Obama also wants to spend $150 billion on clean energy, creating five million new jobs. But economist Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center says we don't have time to train people for those jobs.
Roberton Williams: If the people losing their jobs today are the folks in the financial markets who've been doing all the credit default swaps, it's unlikely they have the capability of designing solar panels or other energy saving devices.
Obama also backs tax credits for companies creating new jobs. But Williams says that's not enough. What Obama really needs to do, he says, is ease the credit crunch and housing crisis. Then the economy could create jobs all by itself.
In Washington, I'm Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
Civil Engineer, means Civilization's Engineer, means People's Engineer. Having said that, the answer to Job Growth appears pretty straight forward. Get the money in the hands of Civil Engineers! And, that would be Infrastructure!
I remember a quote from a Louisiana Senator, just prior to the black book incident in N.Y., saying after reviewing the Hurricane Katrina fiasco, "One real life Civil Engineer could of done more for the People of Louisiana than F.E.M.A. and the Army Corp. put together."
signed,
Real Life Civil Engineer
Re: "Roberton Williams: If the people losing their jobs today are the folks in the financial markets who've been doing all the credit default swaps, it's unlikely they have the capability of designing solar panels or other energy saving devices."
Am I the only one who found it odd that Williams is only aware of those in the financial sector who are losing or have lost jobs? Is he oblivious of the struggling industrial and manufacturing sectors? There are plenty of unemployed and soon-to-be unemployed individuals with technical and engineering qualifications that would ease into these jobs much quicker than your financial market folks.
David Resler's comparison of residential industries with public is off-base. New York's Intended Use Plan (available online) lists BILLIONS of dollars worth of public works projects that have preliminary engineering done and simply await financing. Other states probably have similar lists. Once that federal money becomes available, construction, and the revenue it infuses into a local economy, can begin on day 1 and continue for two or more years. There are no delays like trying to pick the color of your granite countertop.
The criticism that public works projects would "take too long" to affect the economy seems to miss the point. Yes, planning and execution take awhile, but this work should have been started YEARS ago. We need to upgrade our infrastructure just to stay competitive with the rest of the world. The Academy of Civil Engineers (hope I have the title correct) have been giving our infrastructure near-failing grades for many years. We need to fix our roads, bridges, sewer systems, railroads, and power lines simply because they are all OLD. They were the cutting edge technology of the last century, but they are too out-dated and inefficient to handle the demands of the 21st century. I hope that Obama makes this an important part of his long-term strategy for getting America back to work.
I really appreciate it when you print the text on your website. We work on a research vessel at sea with our internet connection via satellite which is quite slow connecting. When a days news is only available via downloaded audio, it is next to time prohibitive to follow the show.
Today's news stories on your web site seem to be all audio, no text? Please consider us who have to read it. Thanks!
