Look Who Is Hiring!

In the midst of all the hoopla in Washington in an effort to pass the so-called stimulus package that contains more pork than hog heaven, one business is now hiring.

No, it is not all the banks and the automobile manufacturers that the federal government is "bailing out"; it is the one business that the government let fail-- Lehman Brothers.

To be sure, the company is a shell of its former self. Approximately a third of the company has been dissolved, another third of its assets have been sold to Barclays and Nomura Holdings, but since its bankruptcy, the remaining third of the company now has 7 billion dollars in cash and more than 1,400 investments estimated to be worth 12.3 billion dollars. And most significantly, Lehman Brothers is hiring with resumes flooding in from all over the place.

I am not suggesting that there is no place for a stimulus package from the government, but it would be helpful if Capitol Hill would actually put forward a real stimulus proposal instead of the fatbacked, pork bellied spending bill that passed the House and is currently making its way through the Senate. And even if Congress were to pass a real stimulus bill, it will not assist in helping the economy recover, but rather hold it above water until it does start to head in the right direction. That is the role government should play now, but the folks in Congress don't seem to understand that their job is limited to keeping disaster at bay, not coming in to save the day. The government is not the cavalry coming over the hill; it is the brigade holding off the onslaught until the cavalry arrives.

When the economy finally recovers, it will not be because the government fixed the problem, as if that were possible, but because the private sector is able to do what it has always done-- invest in the economy and hire more and more people to grow that investment.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

+ + + + + + +

Cross-Posted at RedBlueChristian