That’s the subject of my New York Post column today:
No billions or trillions needed — here’s the simplest number to describe the dismal state of the US economy:
One.
With the departure of chief economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, that’s the number of members from the original Obama economic team still working for the administration, not quite three years into the first term.
Rats, say goodbye to the ship of state: Gone are Christina Romer, Larry Summers, Peter Orszag. Headed out is Goolsbee, who abruptly announced his resignation Monday to return to teaching at the University of Chicago.
With the water lapping over the gunwales, the lone holdout is Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the former tax cheat, who sails grimly on.
Give some credit to my alma mater, Time Magazine, for finally figuring out that there ain’t no damn recovery going on, but most of the MSM — in the triumph of hope ’n’ change over their lying eyes — still blathers blissfully along about the “slow pace,” etc. My stirring conclusion:
What’s needed now is a radical re-thinking of economic theory and the tax structure. Until the economy is addressed, we can’t make rational, realistic decisions about anything else, including foreign policy.
In other words, private-sector jobs are Job One.
Of course, Obama’s aiming to make the 2012 election a re-run of ‘08, with the same hope-and-change shtick. He and his campaign gurus understand that their only hope is to give the electorate the old razzle-dazzzle and hope nobody notices the foreclosure signs sprouting across the land.
How will we know when things are finally starting to go in the right direction? When the US is back on the right track and when hope — real hope — once more springs eternal? When the number of Obama holdovers in the next administration is zero.
Are the Republicans up to task, politically and operationally? Probably not, although this is certainly a good sign.