Short-term speculation hurts jobs recovery



The Great Recession of 2009 has turned many of us into Dow Jones junkies. We track our investment and retirement futures by watching ever-fluctuating numbers few of us really understand. We know less about derivatives, futures and hedge funds than those glued to the Weather Channel know about fronts, isobars and inversions.

One economic nuance all of us likely have noted is that job losses and the market seem linked. When the numbers on layoffs and new unemployment claims are released, there’s usually an immediate, almost knee-jerk reaction on Wall Street. For February, just-released numbers suggest good news — despite a tough winter, 9.7 percent January unemployment did not increase. The result? The Dow is up 82 points, and some proclaim the recession to be over. It isn’t. Reductions in the rate of job losses have yet to translate into job creation. Employers, though reassured by positive numbers on Main Street and Wall Street, have yet to begin hiring. As often happens in periods of financial distress, recovery is never fair and balanced. Those who felt the pain of recession first seem always to be the last ones to experience recovery. While politicos fight it out in Washington over extension of unemployment benefits, the 8 million who lost jobs wait stoically and  watch incredulously as those most responsible for all of this reap traditional end-of-year bonuses.

But there’s more. And it’s not pretty. There’s evidence to suggest that corporate managers in the U.S. cut more jobs in 2007-2009 than they had to in order to prop up their bottom line — stock values. In other developed nations, where the recession is at least as severe, protecting jobs over the corporate bottom line reigned as a recession priority. People took precedence over profit.  But not here.

For some time, the Kudlows and Kramers of the world have questioned the wisdom of Wall Street’s emphasis on short-term profits over long-term stability. They worried that day-traders, hedge fund managers and outright speculators might so tilt the investment balance that corporate decisions would respond more to pressures for windfall gains than the in-it-for-the-long-haul security so vital to the small investor. Why should we expect anything different when it came to layoffs? As Washington fashions recovery legislation that promises tax breaks to employers who hire, the real corporate bottom line remains — hiring will resume only when profits are up and risk is considered minimal.

Ideological commitment to system seems always to prevail over a humanitarian commitment to people. We continue to tout the benefits of work over idleness, we berate those who sacrifice self-worth to the lure of the dole, we even ignore the reality of only one available job for every six people looking. Shame on us.



Dr. William O’Brien

Jumping Branch

Thanks to rescuers at Crawley substation



I want to thank Mr. Dave Hedrick, boss at the Crawley substation, and all the workers — girls and men. Thanks go to Mr. Stuart Damerson for trying. We were stranded in the blizzard, and we called the Crawley substation and were sent a grader to get us out. We could not go front or back to turn around. A truck was in our way. As we were praying to God to send us help, we heard the grader. Thanks to Mr. Steve Cole, the operator, who brought us to our door. Thanks go to all the workers. Thank you all again.



Corrine Fitzgerald

Meadow Bluff

Coal coloring book needs more pages



The Friends of Coal coloring book would be colorful indeed if the mining atrocities of the early 1900s were portrayed for children to see.

FEMA had to remove their coloring book from their Web site because parents protested FEMA’s portrayal of 9/11 as being too graphic for children. However, West Virginia children should learn the brutalities of life as early as possible, and be instilled with a deep sense of shame for being the descendants of coal miners.

Maybe next year the BOE will provide them with a Charles Manson connect-the-dots puzzle or an abortion “pop-up” book. They’re going to find out about it anyway, might as well start now.

There should definitely be a page dedicated to wind turbines, and one of Bobby Kennedy demanding an end to coal in favor of wind power  — the same windmills he adamantly doesn’t want on Cape Cod, much to the chagrin of his minions and peers. Color him hypocrite. Be sure to include a page of the sprawling Kennedy Compound that, when coal mining ends, won’t end up in foreclosure. Add pages for Lisa Jackson, Daryl Hannah, Ashley Judd, and one for West Virginia’s own Kathy Mattea. Explain to the children that while growing up, Ms. Mattea was supported and educated by her family’s coal revenue. We’re all still trying to wrap our minds around that one, but “grade school kids know the difference.”

The bravado of the tree-sitters perched in freezing weather should not be ignored. Provide several duplicates of that page, because it’ll take lots of coloring to even begin to understand that lunacy. Then place follow-up pages showing each of them whining in jail while the environmentalist groups they represent leave them to rot.

And last but not least, include pages of state troopers bodily removing protesters who obviously don’t believe in their cause deeply enough to willingly go to jail. And throw in a couple pages of the jets on which each flew, and caption how many cubic tons of CO2 was spewed into the air between here and California for each jet. Twice. There must be a map of the U.S. so they can grasp the vast air space between Charleston, Hollywood and Hyannis Port.

Agreed, the ugly truth of coal should not be withheld from the elementary school curriculum.



Lisa Bragg

Nimitz