June 24, 2010
In discussing the case for extending unemployment benefits a Post editorial tells readers that: “it is possible — in theory, anyway — for Congress to be both compassionate and prudent.” This makes a great “who’s on first,” moment.
There is a reason that we have 15 million people unemployed. The people running economic policy — people with names like Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Jack Snow, Hank Paulson, Robert Rubin — thought that an $8 trillion housing bubble was really cool. The Washington Post mostly parroted the words of wisdoms coming from these and other people who expressed the same view. It completely ignored those who warned that the housing bubble would burst and wreak havoc on the economy when it did. (David Lereah, the former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors and the author of the book, Why the Housing Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit From It, was the Post’s most widely cited expert on the housing market leading up to the collapse of the bubble.)
Now the boom has burst and wrecked the economy. Remarkably, not one person who was responsible for the policy that brought about this disaster seems to be out of work. However, millions of factory workers, retail clerks, and school teachers have lost their jobs. These people are unemployed not because their lacked the necessary skills. Nor do they lack the desire to work — they had been working until the economy collapsed.
Tens of millions of people are unemployed or underemployed because people with names like Greenspan and Bernanke do not know how to run the economy. And the Post wants to show them compassion by extending unemployment benefits.
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