President Barack Obama
and Japan’s Shizo Abe both face sluggish economies that have been
stimulated to the limit with few, if any, positive results. To his
credit, Abe recognizes the need for the politically tough “structural
reforms” of credit, agriculture, and retail sales to restore Japanese
growth. Obama ignores the deep structural problems of the U.S. economy –
over regulation, the uncertainties of Obama Care, anti-growth tax
policy, and growing entitlement incentives not to work. Instead, he
offers minor sops masquerading as reform, and blames his
five-years-out-of-office predecessor for what is wrong today. Under Abe,
Japan, at last, has a chance of revitalization. Under Obama, the U.S.
will see more of the same. He cannot attack the structural problems
restraining the U.S. recovery because they are largely of his own
making. The pitiful recovery was authored in Washington.
In yesterday’s hour and four minute speech,
President Obama reprised his many “pivot to the economy” speeches of the
past: He inherited a mess from Bush, but he got America moving again.
He has been blocked by a recalcitrant opposition determined to see him
fail. Without his bold actions, we would still be mired in
a painful recession. The President paraded a wish list of shopworn
mini-fixes – youth training, mortgage relief, more infrastructure
investment — and “mother and apple pie” calls to bring American jobs and
manufacturing back home. He failed to offer any concrete proposals how
to create jobs and accelerate tepid growth.
go to forbes.com
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