How can you have a jobless recovery?
Chris Christie, the brainless Governor of New Jersey
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) this morning warns that Britain will be having the same ‘jobless recovery’ as the US is having. I first spotted this potty word-combination just before Christmas, and it still makes me laugh and sigh in equal measure. The suggestion by the use of it is ‘well, it’d be nice if there were some jobs to go with it, but hell – you can’t have everything, right?’.
A fortnight ago, The Slog posted on the subject of how Britain’s current economic model cannot work, and that the kind of capitalism we have now isn’t delivering in terms of jobs. The piece received over a thousand hits, and a record comment haul of 57. To most normal, balanced people the Slog’s conclusion – ‘there’s no point to a commercial form if it doesn’t keep society stable’ – was obvious and irrefutable.
What we’ve been seeing since 2007, however, is the emergence of a view that says no, this isn’t the point of business: its point is to earn huge bonuses and keep the shareholders happy, and keep the return on investment climbing so that we keep the share price up so that all our options keep getting to be worth more and more and more.
We need to go back to basics here. The purpose of capitalist business is to create wealth. You can’t create wealth on even a large minority social basis if you don’t create jobs that allow folks to borrow money, buy houses, trade up their car, pay for clothes and raise families used to the idea of having a job. Without earned income, most people can’t consume. The jobless recovery is an oxymoron. It is a term invented by people who have lost their senses – a crazy concept down there on a level with ideas like low-alcohol meths and taste-free food.
In the end, this is what denialist business journalism comes to. Banks rip off retail customers and empty the Exchequer but we have to have them, or else. So just as we must get used to jobless recoveries, there will be ‘creditless banking’. Don’t laugh: an investment bank with no retail arm at all is precisely what CEO Bob Diamond has in mind. For he is a man of rare left-right brain hemispheres, each one consisting of a large bollock.
Everywhere we look – even just this one morning – the upside-down arrangement of socio-economic thinking is ubiquitous.
Both Brussels and ECB news management soothe with talk of the EU crisis being past, the bond issues restoring confidence, and the situation now generally under control. Unfortunately, the flight of money from Irish Banks is accelerating. Give it a few weeks, and the line will be that it’s going to be an Irelandless stabilisation.
In the US, Colorado, South Dakota, and Minnesota, state employees are sueing for the reinstatement of their pensions. Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie just reneged on his pension obligations too, adding sensitively, “I have bigger issues than who sues me”. Correct, Mr Christie – the biggest issue you face is being an obese, heartless jerk. But hey – it’s merely a pensionless deficit program, that’s all. What’s to worry already?
The most bizarre twist of all in this so far has to be the moneyless success. Newscorp’s Itablet The Daily is going to be monster says Murdoch, but profits won’t improve until they can achieve MySpaceless growth. The bonus pool at Goldman Sachs is getting bigger, but this is a profitless shareout. Santander, Deutsche and Dresdner Banks are in fine shape, given their advantageless mergers.
I could go on and on like this for another 5000 words at least. The bottom line is that it’s all bollocks. Mad bollocks. Insane Alice-in-Wonderland distorted mirror bollocks. And it will get sillier and sillier until the People yell for it to stop.
But if we don’t, prepare for more exportless US growth, the hospitaless NHS reform, and the fundless Crown Prosecution Service…..to go with our priceless free press, fearless in its determination to dig out the truth via lawless phone-hacks.
The Slog 