VOA News: 'Economic Confidence Declines in US, Europe'

Source:VOA News- people looking for Unemployment Insurance.

"Voice of America (VOA) is the America's largest[1][2][3] and oldest international broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress.[4][5] VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 47 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by foreign audiences, so VOA programming has an influence on public opinion abroad regarding the United States and its people.

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From Wikipedia 

"Separate reports on U.S. consumer confidence and European economic sentiment added to the volatility in global markets Tuesday" 

From VOA News

With what looks like another not great jobs report in August coming out Friday and with President Obama expected to address a joint session of Congress at some point next week, whether it's Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night, relations between the White House and Congress are so bad right now, that they can't even agree with each other on when the President should address them, a matter that used to be very routine. 

But what the President should be doing in his jobs speech to Congress next week, is laying out what he feels the country needs to do in order to get the economy going again. And be as bold as possible while still being responsible. I believe his jobs plan needs to be between 500B-1T$ over five years or so or shorter then that. 

We have both weak economic and job growth right now, we have very little of either. And we'll never get the economy going again or be able to pay down our debt and deficit, until we get the economy going again. And that means 4-5% economic growth, not 1% which is where we are right now and creating 200K plus jobs every month. Not 90-100K where we are right now. We have months this year where we only created 40,000 jobs. 

This has been and awful year for the economy right now, after it started to improve in late 2009 and 2010. So the President needs to be big and think big with his jobs plan and put something on the table and send it to Congress. Even if he doesn't have a shot in hell of getting his plan passed, at least he'll be able to force the Republican House to take a position on it. 

If President Obama can sell his plan to the people, he might be able to force the House Republican Leadership to make a counteroffer. And if the President doesn't like it, which is most likely, he'll be able to take that to the American people and have something to critique: "This is where I am and this is we're the House GOP is and they are stopping me from passing a good plan." And be able to use that against the House GOP. 

What the President should focus on next week is consumer spending or the lack of and how to get that going. Because I believe thats the biggest weakness in the economy right now. People aren't spending money and there just isn't enough demand out there for strong job growth. We have a supply and demand economy which we need both of to have a strong economy and right now we don't have enough demand to have a strong economy. 

So President Obama should focus on targeted tax cuts for the middle class to encourage them to spend money. And then he should also focus on infrastructure spending and the need for it, with public schools opening up right now. We could spend money on school renovation and construction in a jobs plan. As well as all of our other infrastructure projects that we need to repair and build. And a National Infrastructure Bank would be a smart and efficient way to finance these projects that would be self- financed. And then trade, there are trade deals stuck in Congress that he should encourage the House and Senate to take up and pass. Central America, Columbia and Korea. 

Shooting for the middle with your first shot when you don't have anyone to negotiate with you at least in the opposition party, because the House GOP's strategy is just to sit this out and wait for the next administration and Congress. And even though Democrats run the Senate, the Senate GOP Leadership has enough votes to block everything right now. So the President needs to be big and go for a home run and then take his case to the people.