Obama's economic trickery

The only economic metric that matters to most “Main Street” Americans is jobs. Unfortunately, the news on this front is getting progressively worse. Unemployment continues to remain stubbornly high, at over 9.1 percent. The percentage of Americans working is 58.1 percent. This is the lowest percentage of Americans working since 1983, and Americans living in poverty is at an all-time high of 15 percent.

Traditional Keynesian fiscal stimulus tools used by the Obama administration to stimulate the economy in 2009 and 2010 have been an unequivocal failure. Taxpayers paid in excess of $800 billion for this failed stimulus venture. As a result of this failure and the current political environment, these fiscal spending tools are not now available for stimulating the economy and creating jobs. Americans will not be duped into wasting more money on another failed stimulus package by calling for $1.5 trillion in new revenue as part of a plan to find more than $3 trillion in budget savings over the next 10 years. Obama's call for $450 billion in new stimulus dollars is just another trick on the public that will fail miserably.

The Federal Reserve Bank has also used traditional Keynesian monetary policy to stimulate the economy. Quantitative Easing (“QE”) I and QE ll have also failed to stimulate sustained growth in the economy. Given the status of current interest rates and the excess liquidity in the economy, it is unlikely that a new QE lll will work. Interest rates are at record lows. Reducing interest rates further is not practical. Even Fed President Geithner has ruled out QE lll.