With the unemployment rate the highest it's been in 25 years, The Roosevelt Institute asked historians, economists and other public thinkers to reflect on the lessons of the New Deal and explore new, big ideas for how to get America back to work. TAPPED will be cross-posting the 10-part series with the New Deal 2.0 blog. In this installment, David Woolner urges President Obama and Congress to adopt the fearlessness of FDR in directly creating jobs.
The recent news that the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009 while at the same time the national unemployment rate hit a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October, has many economists talking about a “jobless recovery.” What this means, say the experts, is continued economic growth -- and hence a technical end to the recession -- but no improvement in the employment figures for the immediate future. In fact, most economists predict that under current conditions, the unemployment rate will rise even further -- perhaps reaching as high as 11 percent by the summer of 2010.
It appears that the Obama administration is prepared to accept this scenario and will not push for bolder solutions so as to ensure that the so-called recovery includes not just an expansion of the GDP but also a reduction in the alarmingly high unemployment rate. As a consequence, millions of American workers will continue to languish among the ranks of the unemployed, burdened by an anxious present and an uncertain future.
More after the jump.
--David Woolner
Braintruster David Woolner is senior vice president of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.
