End Unemployment Now

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