I happened across some local coverage of President Obama’s jobs forum in the Daily Item of Sunbury, Pa. Check out this exchange of views between Bucknell University economist Gregory Krohn and David Taylor, head of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association:
“The best remedies are aimed toward trying to stimulate demand,” Krohn said. “To me, the main economic problem facing the country is there’s too little demand for goods and services. To increase employment and productivity, we need to increase demand.”
He said he hopes the summit will lead to additional aid to state and local governments that would prevent the need for tax hikes that would hurt already financially strapped consumers, giving them a little extra money in their pockets that they may otherwise not have had.
Krohn also supports additional federal funding for infrastructure projects that would get Americans back to work. Finally, he would like to see increased accessibility to loans in order for small businesses to take advantage of future increased demand. . . .
Krohn’s points are on track with those offered up by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and liberal think tank the Economic Policy Institute, both of which wrote open letters to Obama requesting the same measures.
Though Taylor, of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, supports some of the measures in theory, he would just as soon the government keeps its nose out of business altogether.