It's The Jobs Stupid!

No amount of fancy accounting will change the fact that there will be less income tax revenue this year. No jobs, means no tax revenue, means less in State and Federal piggy banks to spend.

Now that banks have a little more solvency they are naturally reticent to repeat the wide open lending practices of the past (even if we let them). Problem is, with more stringent requirements on lending, few families have the balance sheet they need to qualify for a new home, or for many- to qualify for a refinance.

While our money is being spent by the federal government at a frenzied pace one can only wonder where the money to pay all this back will come from if unemployment levels continue at present rates- or get worse. There are few good jobs out there.

In my book the number one stimulus priority needs to be creating jobs. We need to be planting seeds now- small business stimulation (the traditional heart of our economy), investment in targeted industries where America can rise as a world market leader or at least supply our own domestic economy, and trade re-negotiations to bring some of those jobs back home or at least make it more expesive to take the few jobs we have left offshore.

Everyone is counting on the resurgence of the American economic engine and it will surely happen-- eventually. Our creativity and innovation are unstoppable forces, but they could sure use a little help getting off the runway right now. We can bootstrap our way back to economic prosperity as we have done in the past- but some true strategic thinking would go along way towards speeding this up right now.