Job growth is the honey for voters' vinegar

By Money Matters Editors

Tea Partiers. People upset at the Fed. People who want to put term limits on Congress. You name it: the United States abounds in vocal, but for the most part thinly-supported critics.

And although their complaints run the gamut of the political, social, and cultural spectrum, they all really come down to one aspect of American life: the economy. And regarding the economy, the issue of jobs is front and center.

Some critics want to replace Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who, by the way, was just selected Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2009. Money Matters Editors wholeheartedly agrees with the selection: it is deserved.

Other critics want to abolish the Fed. Some even want to return to the gold standard. Talk about irrational actions! Perhaps what some of the critics will advocate next is the banning of electricity and a return to the universal use of gas lamps at home and gas lanterns as street lights?

What’s the proper redress, or the proper tonic, for the above? Well, if the Obama administration doesn’t know it now – they do – it is jobs. If job growth does not appear, the rumblings will grow louder.

However, if robust job growth appears soon, and the nation’s high unemployment that has caused so much so much life disruption and social dislocation begins to decline, most of these ill-conceived, un-enlightened factions, rumblings, and fringe movements will dissipate, as they typically do in these United States.

And then the American people will resume doing what they normally do: go about living their lives.