(Larry) Summers: Unions cause unemployment

[antigop]

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11294

While Obama economic aide Larry Summers - the same Larry Summers who was the architect of deregulation in the late 1990s - has done a masterful job of accruing fawning profiles about himself in Time and the Wall Street Journal, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) last week said what the power worshiping Beltway media would never allow itself to say: Namely, that Summers shouldn't be anywhere near the White House because his economic world view is out of step with economic reality today. DeFazio was referring to what he says are Summers anti-infrastructure spending views, and Summers has confirmed his right-wing frame with a recent letter to Congress deriding the whole concept of an industrial policy - as if that would be a horrific thing.

But just in case you didn't think Summers was a conservative extremist, check out his published work claiming unions cause unemployment: (link:http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Unemployment.html)

Another cause of long-term unemployment is unionization. High union wages that exceed the competitive market rate are likely to cause job losses in the unionized sector of the economy. Also, those who lose high-wage union jobs are often reluctant to accept alternative low-wage employment.

This is a pure form of the right-wing argument that says any effort to raise wages - unionization, a higher minimum wage, anything - is the reason our economy falters. And yet, the person who promotes this kind of thing - Larry Summers - has the ear of the president we want to lift wages, pass the Employee Free Choice Act and generally help reshape the economy in a progressive way.

To the casual observer, it is shocking to think that Summers retains his expert billing after playing a crucial role in destroying the economy. It is even more shocking that he has been hired to fix the economy he destroyed. But to anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes in Washington, D.C. it isn't surprising at all. Summers is an unspectacular zombie in the Establishment's Zombie Culture - a culture where nobody in the Establishment politically dies, no matter what they do, say or destroy. Unfortunately, that culture persists in this era of "change."

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Oink, oink. Right on, Larry!" - Republicon Homelanders

"You are truly (smirk) one of The Guys. Keep talking IT up. Smirk. Too bad about the noisy proles, and shit like that. Sneer. Smirk. Oink."

- Republicon Homelanders

[avalon.bear]

2. Sorry?

I don't speak that language yet.

[Metta]

3. Summers has long been part of the problem. He's a really bad choice.

Props to Peter DeFazio.

[FLAprogressive]

4. Thank God for Peter DeFazio...one of the few to speak up about this

[TahitiNut]

5. Funny how obscene executive compensation isn't ever blamed as anti-competitive.

:puke: :puke:

[nichomachus]

6. Oh -- I remember now. He worked for minimum wage with no benefits at Harvard

[chill_wind]

7. Once again- who exactly should we thanking for this appointment?

K & R

[jgraz]

8. Hmm... I can think of one person who needs to be unemployed...

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. !

:grr: :mad:

[1776Forever]

10. This news along with Sen. Gregg for Commerce? It will be interesting to watch these 2!

Gregg: 100% score from Chamber of Commerce & 7% from the AFL-CIO

Sen. Judd Gregg reportedly considered for Commerce
By Peter Nicholas
January 30, 2009

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-co...

(snip)

He received a 100% score from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for his
votes in 2006, while earning just 7% from the AFL-CIO.

...............

What was Obama thinking here? I am 100% behind Obama but this is just
not registering as a win-win.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

11. K&R

[pilsner]

12. Heresy

Unions are the only institution that has kept the Democratic Party from being taken over by corporatists as the Repub Party was.

Thank labor unions for a vast majority of the gains progressives have made.

[Coexist]

13. (can you see my middle finger from here, Mr. Summers?)

[old mark]

14. As a former AFSCME Steward, I'd like to cause Mr Summers'

unemployment.

See? He's right!

mark

[ieoeja]

15. I bet it would shock many people to learn middle class Americans used to retire in their 50s.

The unions gave us pensions and job security. You got a job at 20. Worked 30 years. Then retired at 50 making way for the next wave of 20-somethings.

So, yes, I guess unions did create unemployment. If you consider early retirement to be unemployed.

Of course, today it is the 20-somethings who are unemployed as folk now have to work into their 60s before they can retire with enough money to last them. Unless they live another decade. Then they have to go find some supplemental work when they can least do it. Fortunately, most of us will die shortly after retirement. So very little of our lives will have been wasted on non-productive enjoyment.

We once had a great society in this country. But then the Republicans managed to convince enough Americans that they could be even better off if they got rid of all the laws that took care of those "other" people. What the average American never realized, and most still do not, is that "they" themselves were those "other" people all along.

[KoKo]

16. You know, really...was Obama drugged when he picked Summers & Geithner?

:eyes:

[JFKfanforever]

17. Have you read Summers' job history?

He has been dogged with problems and controversy for quite
some time. How on earth did this gentleman make it onto
President Obama's short list?  Larry is a man whose time has
come... and gone!

[Earth Bound Misfit]

18. Kick & Rec

:kick:

[DemReadingDU]

19. morning kick