The Pivot

Suppose you were a policy maker who wanted to pivot away from emphasizing the need to reduce the budget deficit and towards the need to reduce the jobs deficit.

You’d get out there on TV and stress the 20+ million un- and underemployed, including the 45% of the unemployed who have been jobless for at least half a year (about as high as it’s ever been). You’d stress the recent slowing of any already slow-growth recovery, and you’d stress the low cost of borrowing, which significantly boosts your bang-for-buck in terms of spending on jobs right now. And you’d remind anyone listening that you haven’t forsaken the truly necessary work of getting the budget on a sustainable path. It’s just that with unemployment at 9.1%, deficit reduction simply isn’t the country’s most important mandate right now. That would be jobs.