US corporations and Wall Street are among the main causes of unemployment in the United States as they continue to move job opportunities out of the country, a former US Treasury official tells Press TV.
“So as long as Wall Street and the corporations profit by moving American jobs to countries where labor costs are substantially lower, there can be no recovery of the American economy,” Paul Craig Roberts, the former Assistant Secretary of US Treasury said.
He pointed to millions of middle class jobs which have been outsourced by US corporations to countries like China and India where labor is cheap.
“Wall Street is energized about its profits, and it makes its profits by arbitraging labor,” the former Treasury official added.
As the jobs move off the tax base, the consumer income, consumer demand and the gross domestic product of the economy will diminish, Roberts argued.
According to the US Labor Department, jobless claims in the country have increased unexpectedly to the highest level since late June, reaching a weekly total of 428,000 in the week ending September 10.
Meanwhile, higher prices for rent, clothing and cars in the US, accelerated inflation to the fastest annual pace in nearly three years.
Currently the unemployment rate in the United States stands at 9.2 percent, the worst level since former President Ronald Reagan was in office in the 1980s.
US President Barack Obama has proposed a USD 447-billion plan to stimulate the economy and create more jobs, which includes a USD 49-billion extension of jobless benefits and tax breaks for companies that hire new workers.
ASH/HGH/HJL
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