A snowstorm has blanketed the east coast, causing flight cancellations and disrupted holiday plans. The President is vacationing in Hawaii after a grueling lame duck session in Washington. During this the last week of the year, there will be no economic indicator issues. These are quiet times.
I
received an email from a friend of a friend, one of those forwarded things that
I swear not to forward on, even though I am threatened with gloom, doom, and
decades of bad luck if I fail to spread the word. This electronic version of a chain letter leaves much
to be desired until I read to the bottom line that says, “January 1, 2011 can
be written as 1-1-11. How much
more confirmation do you need to do things differently.” Something to think about but different
does not mean polluting cyberspace with more junk e-mail.
Actually,
this quiet time is time to savor, to enjoy, to replenish, to refresh, and to
get ready for those challenges that will surely come with this New Year. From a policy perspective, many of the
challenges have to do with the many ways that the now-dominant Congressional
Republicans will attempt to chip away at gains that were made in the last
congressional session, including gains in health care. We can say what we will about the
timing of health care reform, but the fact is that it is the most progressive
economic reform we have seen since the FDR era. It will take tremendous fortitude on the part of
Democrats to hold the line on this legislation.
Already,
people are gearing up for the presidential race in 2012. Will she or won’t she? Sarah Palin should, perhaps, take
former First Lady Barbara Bush’s advice and high tail it back to Alaska. For all of her supposed popularity,
Palin’s second book has been a non-starter, and although she is said to “study”
foreign affairs and other matters, there is that Biblical verse about the sow’s
ear and the silk purse. Palin is
entertainment, and that’s about it. Mississippi governor Haley Barbour had presidential ambitions but he
cannot seem to stop defending the Klan, White Citizen’s Councils, and other
racist groups. His fealty to
foolishness may play well south of the Mason-Dixon line, but the South is not
likely to rise again on this one. So who is left for the Republicans, Mitt Romney? Mike Huckabee? The pickings are pretty slim, though I
am prepared to be surprised in 2011. For all the talk of President Obama’s one-term presidency, if the
economy turns around, he will be difficult to beat in 2012.
Is the
U.S. economy turning around? Unemployment rates remain high, but unemployment is a lagging indicator
of economic success. The stock
market is doing better than expected, and other indicators seem to suggest that
we are on the mend. There is some
fear of a “double dip” recession -- recovery not getting enough traction,
indicators heading south again, and it is troubling that we cannot expect
unemployment rates to drop to 6 or 7 percent until around 2014. President Obama will need to accelerate
plans to lower unemployment. He
will need an unemployment rate closer to 8 percent to win in 2012.
Camus
once wrote, “Without work all life is rotten”. He was speaking more spiritually than economically,
reflecting on our search for meaning, significance, and passion in our lives. Work generally consumes at least a
third of our day, gets us up in the morning, and makes our chest poke out when
we answer the question “what do you do”. Work supports and sustains us, pays our bills, puts
food on the table and all that good stuff. The need for meaningful employment is one of our most basic
needs, one that government must address with industrial policy and job creation
efforts.
What will
our nation look like in 20 years? What kinds of jobs will we have? What kind of training will people need for those jobs? Are we prepared to compete with the
rest of the world, especially with China? A snowstorm has blanketed the east coast and there are just a few more
days left in 2010. These are quiet
times, filled with contemplation and possibilities for new beginnings.
Julianne Malveaux is President of Bennett College for Women
in Greensboro, North Carolina.
