ManufactureThis’s friend Tom Brokaw weighed in this morning with a rather biting op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.  It seems that Tom is not much happier about a $700 billion mortgage/securities bailout than anyone else.

  Adding a bit of humor to the mix, though, Tom concocted a news story about struggling pawn shop owners, tow truckers, and poster salesmen who seem to have stumbled a bit of late.  All are hoping the Treasury Department will take over their ailing businesses and rescue them from bankruptcy.

As Tom describes it, Barney Baumgartner of Windblown, Wyoming needs help with his little venture, The Big Un 24 Hour Tow Service and Trophy Taxidermy: “He’d be willing to let the government have 80% of his business for a quick cash infusion. He thought something in the neighborhood of $1.8 million should do the trick. That would be enough to gas up his two tow trucks, get some new taxidermy stuffing and clean up that overdue account at the Number 10 Saloon and Casino over in Deadwood, S.D.”

Who knew Tom Brokaw could be so snarky?

More importantly, who expected Wall Street to come crashing down so quickly? 

Well, actually, that one is debatable.  At the root of the problem are lots and lots of failed mortgages—millions of Americans who can’t pay their bills.

And so, the heart of the problem still comes back to what ManufactureThis mentions all the time—jobs, jobs, jobs.  When Americans lose good-paying manufacturing, research, engineering, and science jobs, they find themselves struggling to pay the rent.  Some of them default on their family homes.  And when these foreclosures pile up, the ripple effect is felt from Main Street to Wall Street.

Congress and the Administration are working to prop up the brokers and banks, but they need to fight for good jobs, too.  Step one: start enforcing U.S. trade law.  Taking action on cheating by countries like China will help to re-grow American manufacturing.  And that means the money won’t simply keep leaving the country.  It also means families being able to pay their mortgage each month.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Economic Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.