I have a question:

[vraiblonde]

And this is a serious one, not some jab at John Kerry.

How does a President "create" jobs? That's Kerry's new mantra - that George Bush failed to create jobs. I'm just curious how a President might go about that. Does he actually hire people? Maybe starts a business to employ people? Maybe put all unemployed people on the federal payroll, like welfare?

Anyone who can shed some light on this, TIA.

 

[Bruzilla]

Do you mean aside from firing people at the White House Travel Office and replacing them with your friends?

 

[vraiblonde]

Do you mean aside from firing people at the White House Travel Office and replacing them with your friends?

Besides that.

 

[Bruzilla]

I believe that the President has a considerable amount of influence over jobs. The Pres is suppossed to be the guy (or gal) giving the rudder orders for public policy. When the Pres says that US policy is to cut taxes, and he ensures that it gets done, then jobs increase. If the Pres says he's against business and he's going to persecute businesses, jobs will decline.

I know... I know... the Dems are already wetting their fingers to pounce on me and say "GWB lost thousands of jobs even with his tax cuts!" But the truth is that most of the jobs lost never should have existed in the first place. Many of the jobs lost since 2001 were in the internet industry, and were in businesses that were nothing more than a technical-sounding name and a server. When investors realized there was nothing to them, they folded up and the tech weinies they employed were out on the street. And all the folks that supported them at McDonalds, Shell, and the Quickie Mart went out with them.

So, take that landlside out of the equation, and the numbers drop considerable. Now, take out the people who lost their jobs, directly and indirectly, to the Dodd/Lieberman corporate scandals and Clinton's recession, and it becomes clear that the true net gain in jobs is a result of Bush's tax cuts.

 

[ylexot]

Isn't it well-established that employment is a lagging indicator to the economy?

 

[Bruzilla]

Overall employment is, but there are some sectors that lead the economy. For example, ramping up of personnel who make shipping containers, pallets, packing materials, etc. is an early sign of a raising economy.

 

[Ken King]

I don't know exactly how a President goes about it, but it seems JFK would farm out our military authority to an international organization, which would probably result in greater losses of our troops, thereby requiring a reinstatement of the draft, thus resulting in greater employment.

 

[SamSpade]

And this is a serious one, not some jab at John Kerry.

How does a President "create" jobs? That's Kerry's new mantra - that George Bush failed to create jobs. I'm just curious how a President might go about that. Does he actually hire people? Maybe starts a business to employ people? Maybe put all unemployed people on the federal payroll, like welfare?

Anyone who can shed some light on this, TIA.

I wish I could. To my knowledge, he doesn't, other than the few things he can do to stimulate the economy - tax cuts, interest rates, GATT, NAFTA - but not much. To the best of my knowledge, the single biggest contributor to the Clinton years was the creation and growth of the Internet, something that he really had nothing to do with.