At Arm's Length - Financial Commentary about Money, Investing, and How It Affects the Average Investor

At Arm's Length: 02.07.05

A Note to the Jobless from the President

Dear Citizenry,
I have good news. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% and that is just about as good as news can get right now. Even better was the final tally from the first four years and I did not have a net decrease in jobs. I won't go down in history as the worst since Hoover.

In fact, in four years, I created 118,000 jobs for the American working people of this great nation. If the whole of you so-called disparaged workers got out and found employment, I would have had a net increase much larger than that, thank you very much. The final number should have been 10 million plus. That's right, there are an estimated 10 million potential workers out there who are no longer looking. That has economists everywhere muttering "jobless recovery". I mean, 118,000 created is nothing to scoff at - right?

But it was the folks who decided that looking for work was no longer something they can do for one reason or another that is truly disappointing. We are supposed to be a nation of entrepreneurs, go-getters, and the like. How am I supposed to transfer ownership of your retirement to you if you continue to fail at looking for simple employment, the kind that adds to the jobs numbers. I've seen pictures of storefront windows that say "help wanted" so I know that there is work available.

But overall, those jobs number was good for the stock market. Go figure. Apparently equities voice their approval of a weaker than expected jobs number, a paltry 0.2% increase in wages, and the soggy dollar that is supposedly being weighted down by my so-called overspending. I spent where necessary and will spend again if I have to.

But the bond market is not exactly being cooperative either. I could use a higer yield which would mean a more attractive offering internationally.

I was sure glad to hear my old ally and political enabler out stumping after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting this past week. Alan Greenspan is currently tweaking the economy at an agonizingly somnambulant rate. He is doing this so as not to tip the world order and upset my apple cart.

If Mr. G were to adjust interest rates and money supply to levels that would normally happen during such economically lackluster eras, this whole recovery would not only come to a screeching halt but may be exposed for the shame it really is. But no, true to form, his moderation, sometimes at the expense of a few berating comments about fiscal discipline, is overall exactly the kind of Fed chief a spendthrift President like me needs.

Greenspan quickly flew to London to hobnob with the top financiers and bankers from the leading industrial nations called the G7. Which is kind of ironic because I did a horrible job at creating manufacturing jobs this past four years, but hey, I increased productivity among the few that were left.

What Al did was tone down the rhetoric. That's a big change from the last meeting in November where he took the opportunity to do some international tongue lashing, a financial scolding of the United States, more specifically directed at me for creating twin deficits, one for trade and the other for legacy building.

With Greenspan it is what he doesn't say that matters. He kind of hinted at something prices might do to fix the trade gap which have been setting new records every month. What he told these top money people was brilliant. He said the weak dollar might force exporters to the United States to raise prices thereby reducing the attractiveness of cheap goods. Without cheap goods, American would slow the growth of the trade gap. He didn't say it was due to an increase in attractive American goods but rather a diminishing ability for America to buy.

China so far hasn't cooperated much either but at least they keep buying our deficit spending. I plan on making those tax cuts permanent sometime soon. Hopefully while every one is busy worrying about what I will do to Social Security, I'll be able to slip some tax reform past Congress as well. But that comes with a price and willing Asian customers are very important.

So to those who are still out of work, you sure could help your dear old commander-in-chief by getting out there and looking for work. When you find some cheap minimum wage job to replace your former job, the one with the check that just got you by, know that you will be adding to the national totals.

That's good for me, and its good for your country.

Sincerely, Mr. B.

The previous week's articles.

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