'Things could be much worse'

Some Very Creative Economic Fix-Its

By DAVID SEGAL
Published: November 27, 2010
New York Times

We are not going to shop our way out of this mess.

It’s a cheerless truth about the post-Thanksgiving start of the Christmas season, traditionally the bell lap in America’s year-long steeplechase of buying. There has been a rebound in consumption since the grimmest days of the Great Recession, but that has not been joined by an uptick in hiring or a robust expansion.

So the question of our anxious age: What will return our economy to full-throttled life? We’re not talking about tactical measures that will ease fears of a double-dip recession, or maintain some upward momentum in the stock market, or even add another 151,000 new jobs, as the economy did in October.

What’s needed is a path to sustained growth. That means a strategy for the millions who have lost their jobs in recent years and some hope for the more than 125,000 new entrants to the United States labor market each month.

Got any ideas?

(More here.)