End Unemployment Now
How to Eliminate Joblessness, Debt, and Poverty Despite Congress
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
The year 2010 marked when the National Bureau of Economic Research declared an end to the Great Recession. The economy had shed over six million jobs in 2008 and 2009, but few had been recalled to work by 2010. Today, government policies have yet to make a significant dent in unemployment. In End Unemployment Now, Ravi Batra explores why this is the case. He explains how joblessness can be completely eliminated—in just two years, and without the help of our painfully incompetent Congress. The President and the Federal Reserve have the legal authority to generate free-market conditions that will quickly end the specter of unemployment, all without involving Congress.
Some examples of how to end unemployment without congressional intrusion:
• Creating a bank by the FDIC to compete with banking giants and then charging only 5% interest rates on credit card balances, instead of the standard 10-35% seen today
• Banning mergers among large and profitable firms, as such mergers directly cause layoffs and reinforce monopoly capitalism
• Aid to small businesses in the form of cheap loans and government contracts, because small firms have been real job creators since 1980, while Big Business has been a job destroyer
• Offer retiree bonds to increase the incomes of pensioners who live on savings and whose incomes have been practically destroyed by the collapse of interest rates
• Bring oil prices down to $20/barrel, which would lower a gallon of gas to $1.50
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this important book, Southern Methodist University economics professor Batra offers practicable solutions to many of the economic problems plaguing America. Most promisingly, these ideas can be implemented without involving Congress and the party loyalties that so often gum up the legislative works. Batra denounces our current system of monopoly capitalism as the main problem, positing free markets and competitive capitalism as the solution. While free markets would by necessity involve congressional input, Batra states that the President can bring about truly competitive capitalism without political hindrance. Batra's cogent inventory of what he sees as the current obstacles to be overcome includes a "Do Nothing" Congress, high unemployment, monopoly capitalism, and stock market bubbles. He finds the cure for these economic ailments in the sectors of banking and finance, oil and gasoline, big pharma, and foreign trade. This worthy treatise concludes with a concise summation of its key proposals, including creating a bridge bank to bring down credit card interest rates, gradually raising the minimum wage in concert with inflation and national productivity levels, and preserving competition by not allowing large profitable firms to merge. Even readers new to this level of detail should recognize the wisdom of Batra's ideas.
