Google Chairman Favors Federal Stimulus Spending

Good interview via Mother Jones. A corporate leader who seems to understand how a consumer economy actually needs consumers.

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, GOOGLE: "The economy is today stuck behind the power curve. It needs a lot of encouragement. It needs not just something like the jobs bill, but also significant government stimulation in terms of buying power and investment. Otherwise we're set up for years of extraordinarily low growth in the economy and no real solution to the jobless problem."

Christiane Amanpour: But you say significant stimulus. Obviously this is a political environment where the only real conversation is about cutting. Do you see any expectation or possibility of a climate for more stimulus?]

Schmidt: "Well that's a political question. But the current strategy is ludicrous. You have a situtation where the private sector sees essentially no growth in demand. The classic solution is to have the government step in, and with short-term initiatives help stimulate that demand. If they do it right, they'll invest in income and growth producing things, like highways and bridges and schools."

In other words, the radical budget cutting being forced by the Republicans is exactly the wrong thing. The Obama jobs bill is the right thing, if he can get it passed.

This corporate leader understands what most Americans don't: our economy won't recover without another strong jolt of stimulus. Corporations won't spend their money (in some cases OUR money, which they got in rescue packages) unless consumers show the confidence to spend, and consumers won't have that confidence if they don't have money in their pockets and if they're worried their employer is about to lay them off or cut their pay, which is what employers do when they're uncertain.

The consumer/employer/manufacturer cycle is a whirlpool right now, leading us down. Only federal stimulus will do the trick, like it did in 2009 when the entire world economy was on the brink. Then it did work. It will work again if Congress will let it work.

The problem we have is REPUBLICANS DON'T WANT A GOOD ECONOMY. They want Obama to fail, and in order for him to fail we as a nation must fail. Then Republicans can take over again. Do we remember what got us here? The dangerous finances of Bush and his Republican enablers.