From WaPo–
“…He (Bush) can either concede that his $1.7 trillion tonic has not worked as advertised, or he can insist that the economy is strong despite the slowdown in growth and job creation.“
Or, even better, he (Bush) could insist that drinking urine is tastes better, and is better for you, than drinking apple juice (especially if you are being mistreated in a federal institution).
From Billmon–
“…(or the admin could insist) that the jobs picture would be a good deal worse without the Bush tax cuts.”
Without question. I heard Our Miss Brooks hammer away at this very point while he was pretending to be a positive and reasoned Rovian last night during a speech to the California Club (archived on KQED?).
Speaking of Davey Boy and others of his ilk, is it possible that there is actually a double-extra, whipped-cream with a cherry-on-top super secret program to transfer Karl R’s neural stem cells into the brains of quisling journos?

Posted by: RossK | Aug 11 2004 14:33 utc | 4

Offshoring advocate comes out for Kerry

High-tech heavyweight Marc Andreessen, an outspoken supporter of “offshoring” work to low-wage countries, said Wednesday he has decided to support Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid despite the candidate’s condemnation of “Benedict Arnold CEOs” who move job overseas.
[…]
In March, Andreessen’s support for Kerry appeared doubtful because he was “frustrated” by the candidate’s “running around talking about Benedict Arnold CEOs. Well, I’m one of those Benedict Arnold CEOs.”
Since then, Kerry has dropped that harsh rhetoric, but has continued to express doubts about sending jobs overseas. In his nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention, Kerry listed what he suggested were Republican economic mistakes. “We’re told that outsourcing jobs is good for America,” he said. “We can do better, and we will.”
[…]
But Andreessen said he now believes Kerry’s approach to economic globalization issues, such as trade and offshoring, will end up resembling that of former President Clinton, who pushed Congress to support the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“I spent quite a bit of time on this with Kerry’s economic people since we talked, and they assure me up, down, and sideways that Kerry’s economic and trade policies will be virtually identical to Clinton’s,” he said.
He said he is willing to overlook Kerry’s earlier suggestions that executives who offshore jobs are disloyal to their country. “I’m fine with them saying whatever they need to say on the campaign trail,” he said.

It’s not my problem, I live in this low wage country.

Posted by: MarcinGomulka | Aug 11 2004 19:43 utc | 6

So it comes down to this in an election year. We’re not good, but we’re better than those Euro’s and Japan. What a campaign slogan.
The fact is, you can’t give fat cats tax breaks, suck the middle and lower classes dry, mismanage where the money is going, and expect the economy to thrive. The states are hurting because all the federal money dried up. They can put all the money they want in a line item in the fed budget, but if it isn’t sent to the states it doesn’t do any good.
God, our federal government is mis-managed so bad by the “Grand Old Party” it is absolutely horrid. Does anyone really realize how much gas tax currently going to DC is being held up in the Transportation bill? These bills produce jobs on a massive scale. Yet, election year politics and Bushie and his house cronies, afraid of how bad the deficit will look because of his wasting money in Iraq, has held the money up. They’ve taken the money, but refuse to send it back. Billions of dollars.
This admin makes me so sick, all I can do is pray the dems win the senate if Bushie is re-elected again. I can’t take two or four more years of sole control by the stupid repubs.

Posted by: jdp | Aug 11 2004 22:04 utc | 8

Summary from the Economic Policy Institute:
THE U.S. IS OVERTAKEN BY EUROPE ON PRODUCTIVITY
Productivity in the United States is slipping behind at least seven European countries, according to the latest information from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which tracks the leading industrialized economies. The Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, which refers to the statistics in its study, The State of Working America, scheduled to be released in September, observes that the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Norway all report greater productivity than the U.S. The average worker in the Netherlands is 6% more productive, but works 59 days less per year than the average American worker. Workers in Norway are 31% more productive. What is more striking, is that most European countries have half the poverty rate of the U.S. While the U.S. still has the highest per capita income, at least 17% of the population in the U.S. now lives in poverty. More disturbing, 21.9% of the children in the U.S. are growing up in poverty.
Link (on right) to PDF doc (Full report upcoming.)
Now I don’t myself consider such comparisons to be the most important, except insofar as painful poverty, hunger, poor diet, illness, misery, suicide, etc. are concerned. However, if one enters that terrain, a lot of number crunching and subsequent ‘nuancing’ is required.

Posted by: Blackie | Aug 12 2004 23:20 utc | 10