Barack Obama announces economic recovery roadmap; plan would create 2.5 million new j

**min0 lee** · 11-23-2008, 06:17 PM

Barack Obama announces economic recovery roadmap; plan would create 2.5 million new jobs

BY CELESTE KATZ
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Updated Sunday, November 23rd 2008, 2:58 AM

Faced with trying to right a debt-shackled, job-bleeding economy, President-elect Barack Obama vowed Saturday to create or save 2.5 million American jobs by 2011.

Obama, during the weekly Democratic address, pledged to embark on a sweeping "nationwide effort to jump-start job creation [and] lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy."

He noted that "an economic crisis of historic proportions" has already cost 1.2 million U.S. jobs this year, and unemployment claims are spiking while new home purchases are tanking.

Through a massive two-year stimulus plan he's asking his team to devise, "We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels," Obama said.

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"Fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive" are also part of the plan, which is far broader than what Obama discussed during the campaign.

Obama described the measures - to which he attached no dollar figure - as going beyond the current financial crunch.

Instead, he said, they are "long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long."

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The President-elect - who also praised Congress for its recent extension of unemployment benefits - said passing the plan won't be easy, but "what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action.

"Right now, there are millions of mothers and fathers who are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills," Obama continued. "Retirees are watching their life savings disappear and students are seeing their college dreams deferred. These Americans need help, and they need it now."

The situation is "likely to get worse before it gets better," but without swift action, Obama warned, the nation risks losing millions more jobs next year and "falling into a deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further."

Among those who will help Obama try to rejuvenate the sagging economy is New York Federal Reserve chief Timothy Geithner, 47, who's being tapped as Obama's new Treasury secretary.

Lawrence Summers, a former treasury secretary under Clinton and one-time president of Harvard University, will be named the director of the National Economic Council, officials said Saturday.

Geithner kept a low profile at his Larchmont home Saturday.

He finally emerged around 5 p.m., cell phone in hand, and drove off without taking questions.

ckatz@nydailynews.com

With James Queally

**The Monkey Man** · 11-23-2008, 06:29 PM

How is building anything short of an industrial base going to save us?

GLobalization has killed us

**Dale Mabry** · 11-23-2008, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

GLobalization has killed us

Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**Shae2K3** · 11-23-2008, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

GLobalization has killed us

True story.

**Big Smoothy** · 11-23-2008, 08:25 PM

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

How is building anything short of an industrial base going to save us?

GLobalization has killed us

Yes. Sad but true.

And this "economic stimulus" is just trying to alleviate the symptoms, and not the roots of the causes.

**Little Wing** · 11-23-2008, 09:23 PM

Originally Posted by Little Wing

we need a government that understands money. the end of this says it all. watch 1:20 on

**BoneCrusher** · 11-24-2008, 12:14 AM

Originally Posted by The Monkey Man

How is building anything short of an industrial base going to save us?

GLobalization has killed us

In the race in which you are the leader, when you have to stop and wait for the others you lose much. We were, and still are, unimaginable light years ahead of the others. We get $20hr for a task that earns the average Asian $20 a day, a week, or a even month. An adjustment was eminent. We live in a global market, yet live our lives as though we only have our own bordered and self ordered economy. It was nice when we really did have that goin' on, for a while, but the only thing in life that is truly consistent is change. Embrace the light of prosperity that globalization offers, and position yourself to prosper from that change.

**Dale Mabry** · 11-24-2008, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by BoneCrusher

In the race in which you are the leader, when you have to stop and wait for the others you lose much. We were, and still are, unimaginable light years ahead of the others. We get $20hr for a task that earns the average Asian $20 a day, a week, or a even month. An adjustment was eminent. We live in a global market, yet live our lives as though we only have our own bordered and self ordered economy. It was nice when we really did have that goin' on, for a while, but the only thing in life that is truly consistent is change. Embrace the light of prosperity that globalization offers, and position yourself to prosper from that change.

There is a problem with that logic. It requires the assumption that when the owner of a company saves $80 a day on labor, that he passes the savings on to the consumer, which would mean you would see a significant drop in the price of the product. This doesn't happen, they pocket the difference, and sooner or later, there are fewer people available to purchase the product at the current price. Outsourcing/offshoring is essentially re-distribution of middle-class money to the owners of companies and the poor in 3rd world countries. If you sell Ipods for $200 and pay an Indian $2 an hour to assemble it, you lose the person who was able to pay $200 for it, without gaining a new customer because what idiot who makes $2/hr can afford a $200 Ipod?

**BulkMeUp** · 11-24-2008, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

If you sell Ipods for $200 and pay an Indian $2 an hour to assemble it, you lose the person who was able to pay $200 for it, without gaining a new customer because what idiot who makes $2/hr can afford a $200 Ipod?

I've had this question on my mind as a teenager. Even before this outsourcing thing became big and came to the attention of the general public.

**KelJu** · 11-24-2008, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by BulkMeUp

I've had this question on my mind as a teenager. Even before this outsourcing thing became big and came to the attention of the general public.

I become very well aware of out sourcing when my mom lost her job when the textile industry moved out of country.

**min0 lee** · 11-24-2008, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

There is a problem with that logic. It requires the assumption that when the owner of a company saves $80 a day on labor, that he passes the savings on to the consumer, which would mean you would see a significant drop in the price of the product. This doesn't happen, they pocket the difference, and sooner or later, there are fewer people available to purchase the product at the current price. Outsourcing/offshoring is essentially re-distribution of middle-class money to the owners of companies and the poor in 3rd world countries. If you sell Ipods for $200 and pay an Indian $2 an hour to assemble it, you lose the person who was able to pay $200 for it, without gaining a new customer because what idiot who makes $2/hr can afford a $200 Ipod?

Your pretty good when it comes to this subject.

**Big Smoothy** · 11-24-2008, 08:31 PM

Good points, Dale.

I see wages continuing to flatten (decline) in the US, more H1-B visas allowed in over time, and more outsourcing, as it's already the norm.

**Little Wing** · 11-25-2008, 03:50 AM

we need a government that will say if you want to build your factory in china or wherever good. move there. bye bye. or make it so you need to pay the foreign workers the same as you would need to pay an American and provide the same benefits, follow the same environmental and waste disposal laws... remove all incentive to take jobs elsewhere.

**Big Smoothy** · 11-25-2008, 04:15 AM

From what the analysts say (that I follow) such as Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers,

I think the US dollar will significantly decline in 2009.

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