Tom Friedman Tells Obama How To Save The Country

Tom Friedman tells us that Obama ran a campaign centered on raising taxes on the rich.  He offers his view on what the president needs to tell Americans in his upcoming national addresses.  Friedman's views on the bold changes that are needed, suffers from several problems.  In the first place,  he is wrong about the president's campaign promises.  Raising taxes on the rich was only one of the was that he proposed to deal with deficit reduction. He also showed a willingness to negotiate with Republicans over cuts in spending. Moreover, the president agrees with the argument that Friedman makes in this article, and which he has been repeating ad nauseam since he wrote The Earth Is Flat.  The president offered several proposals for improving education and for increasing access to higher eduction.  Obama also proposed many investments that we need to make in order to make the US more competitive in the global economy.  In other words, President Obama's ideas are pretty similar to Friedmans.

The other problem with Friedman's suggestions is that they are wrong.  He argues that businesses are not investing in the US economy because they are worried about the nations fiscal problems.  He believes that businesses would invest in the economy if the president could pass a credible bill that would reduce long term investments.  In other words, he believes in the "confidence fairy" that has been used by conservatives to promote austerity measures in the US and Europe.  Businesses invest when they see an opportunity to earn a profit on their investments.  They won't invest unless they see a pick up in demand for their products and services.  Much of their investment is in international markets. They see opportunities to reduce costs by locating overseas, and they enhance their access to international markets with those investments. Unmanaged globalization, has been responsible for lower wage growth, and much of the unemployment in the US.  This is one of the reasons for weak demand by consumers in the US.  They have been financing consumption with debt.  This problem will not be fixed by improving education in the US or by investing in infrastructure.