Who can forget those beyond incredible job creation projection numbers of the Stimulus Bill. 3.5 million jobs, 4 million jobs, the promise was high and never mind spending almost a trillion dollars for these jobs. Recently the Council of Economic advisers issued a report on job creation from the Stimulus, at the same time, the White House claimed to have saved 750,000 jobs by August, 2009.
So, what's the catch? There is no real world, real data on the truth of these claims and there may never be.
We still have theoretical calculations on job creation, based on Stimulus spending as a ratio of GDP, and thus indirectly jobs.
Maybe this slipped your mind. The Bush administration pushed the outsourcing of U.S. government jobs, including moving Federal jobs offshore. EPI has just released a study showing those results insourced poverty to contractors while outsourcing the jobs.
In Outsourcing poverty: Federal contracting pushes down wages and benefits, K.Edwards, K. Filion, found:
Federal agencies have been under pressure to reduce the size of their workforce and cut costs, creating the incentive to outsource government work through contracts with private businesses for goods and services. Between 2000 and 2006, federal contract spending increased 69.1%—from $256 billion to $415 billion.
What is shocking in this report is 43% of all workers for the Federal Government are actually contractors.
A simple question. An obvious question. While the non-debate debate rages on over tax cuts in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, this fundamental question of how many real jobs will go to real American workers needing a job....is not asked.
So, I'm asking it. I do not have an answer.
We have already seen TARP bail out recipients replace Americans with foreign guest workers.
Research and Development is moving out of the United States and offshore. In a new Economic Policy Institute study titled The Offshoring of Innovation, Dr. Ron Hira made the acceleration clear.
The economic and national security outcomes of increased resource input into the innovation process are going to be different than they have been in the past. We need fresh thinking about policies that will re-shape the new national innovation system to achieve desired outcomes
It is clear to me that the root cause of many of the economic ills of 2008 was the "government subsidy" of immigration levels about ten times greater than our nation's immigration tradition. See Roy Beck's short YouTube video here: Our Immigration Tradition
When labor markets are glutted by an alphabet soup of work visa programs and the costs of the necessaries of life are bid upwards by the tidal wave of immigration, the "banker class" are the most significant beneficiaries. The U.S. middle class and lower class are the losers in this zero-sum game
Here is a collection of some of my published writings on these topics. I'm anticipating that there will be a big push for increased immigration in 2009, since both McCain and Obama's campaigns called for increased H-1B visas, for example. I wonder out loud if the voice of the middle class will be heard over the "soft rustle of lobbying dollars."
President-elect Obama promises to create 2.5 million jobs and has plans for a massive stimulus package costing at least half a trillion dollars if not $1 trillion dollars.
But where exactly would those jobs be created?
Business Week Journalist Michael Mandel asks Can Obama Keep New Jobs at Home? Mandel points out that a massive stimulus might just well go offshore.
Some startling facts in this article:
Imports have risen from the equivalent of 9% of gross domestic product to almost 19%. Even more astonishing, the value of imported goods now is equal to almost 40% of the output of U.S. manufacturing.
There has been enormous campaign rhetoric on tax incentives to offshore outsource American jobs. But can corporate tax policy alone really do much?
Firstly, what are Politicians even talking about? When corporations keep profits in a foreign country, they don't pay taxes on that money in the United States. A reasonable explanation:
Corporations. $2.5 trillion in sales. Tax liability, zero
brought to you by your tax code at work
Sounds like a slogan to do business in the US doesn't it? Yet assuredly that is not what is happening when corporations line up like the Oklahoma land rush to move to China and India.
Yet, maybe that multinational corporate land rush has something to do with these results?
The Government General Accountability Office just released a report on how many large corporations do not pay taxes yet have strong sales. AP sums it up:
It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy! 
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