Friday, September 30, 2011

Noonan: Leadership Needed

Peggy Noonan was once a presidential speech writer, I expect a darned good one. Now she writes for The Wall Street Journal: columns on politics, on Catholicism, on life in New York City, but mostly on politics.

This week she writes about politicians' obsession with finding "the story" that works, that will convince the public to vote for them. She says politicians need instead to find policies that will actually solve our problems.

That's easy to say and difficult to do. We need jobs and economic growth; nobody knows how to get there from here.

On the one hand, the Fed has no more "ammunition" left to counter a down economy. On the other hand, the government is so far in debt that borrowing more to spend more seems wrong too.

Businesses have plenty of cash but won't spend it to grow or hire workers. Why? Because they see no growth in demand and do not trust government to behave in ways that are business-friendly.

What to do? Perhaps make government more trustworthy as seen by business; something not "do-able" until January, 2013.