I think that wouldn't work for a few reasons. Firstly they are not limiting it to just U.S. citizens, perm residents, so obviously a guarantee of a job is an immigration magnet beyond belief. We cannot employ the about ~100 million in the U.S. job market at it is, I don't think one wants to guarantee a job using taxpayer money to 1.5 billion global workers.

I also don't think one can guarantee a job because if someone can get paid without even showing up, doing the work....that's an incentive problem, seen in the U.S.S.R.

Then, there is a similar thing in India which has become a bureaucratic nightmare.

That's a huge problem with government programs generally, but from my reading, it appears Francis Perkins, FDR administration did so much to make sure programs were cost effective and efficient. It can be but the devil in the details. Why I think FDR's New Deal basically saved America and also gave America it's soul back, changed patriotism to a sense of community, of caring about one's fellows, to me they paid high attention to detail and results and that's why they were successful.

From this first Stimulus, I dare say the concept of "throw money at the problem" doesn't work, or at least isn't very effective.

I already have a direct jobs program in the list and Germany's short time unemployment benefits I put into the list. Germany's program works too so lots of evidence that it helps.

I guess this is another issue, they need to examine what paid out, what really worked, what's actually effective and what doesn't work out so well in the past.

This is something that drives me nuts. We see a lot of philosophy, strictly orthodox religions too, trying to craft labor and economic policy.

I'm not in those camps, I much more in the what's the most bang for the buck, what would actually work.

Does it make sense to give states billions of more debt fueled money when those very states already offshore outsourced hundreds of thousands of jobs...using taxpayer money?

This is an economics blog. Beyond yelling out to the public there isn't much we can do.

I would suggest contacting your Senators, Congress Rep. State and Local officials and tell them what's going on.

You might also try to contact an attorney. Seems absurd to reneg after 4 payments on a signed contract. You do have a signed, closed mortgage modification?

Unlike our so-called American capitalists, China sees opportunity in a crisis.

(Reuters) - Dubai's debt crisis could be China's opportunity to snap up gold and oil assets, a senior Chinese official said in remarks published on Monday.
...
While the impact of the Dubai crisis on the global economy and on China was not known yet, it would last a while at the very least, Ji Xiaonan, who chairs the supervisory board for big state-owned companies under the State Council's state assets commission, told the Economic Information Daily.
"That could give China a buying opportunity to put some forex reserves into gold or oil reserves," Ji was quoted as saying by the paper, which is widely read by Chinese officials.
Another paper, the China Youth Daily, quoted Ji as saying that a team of experts from Beijing and Shanghai had set up a task force last year to look at the issue of gold reserves.
"We suggested that China's gold reserves should reach 6,000 tons in the next 3-5 years and perhaps 10,000 tons in 8-10 years," the paper quoted him as saying.

Looks a lot like a real estate venture gone bust to me. On a grand scale of course. But then so is Fannie and Freddie. From that aspect things should be able to get reorganized. I don’t know that it will cause any major down turns to the global markets, though it’s certainly frightening everyone.

It does continue in my mind to be evidence of a global market still requiring medical attention. And a market were people are going to be looking to better assets to protect what’s left of their wealth. It's this fall out that I think can cause the most damage long term.

citi bank offered me a home modification in may of 2009 in nov.2009 after 4 peyments they called to tell me i was not qualified. i made all payments on time and now they will not return my calls. i contacted sigtarp and greenpath. citi did not return those calls either. i have 2000,000in this home and need someone to help me talk to citi. thank you. i had a fixed 6% rate and used all my retirerment money.

The blog traffic today is way down! I'm assuming everyone is burnt out, playing around with their new gadgets.

Let's see, I've spent at least 5 hours fiddling with all of the features on my "home theater in a box".

What about you?

Forget Dubai, we're drowning in credit card purchased gadgets!

Anyone using a GPS to locate their bathroom?

I'm surprised that none of you guys said, "Hey, what about Britain, Ireland, and Spain?"
The reason I didn't include them in this list isn't because they are any less insolvent than Greece or the Ukraine. Within a year or two Britain's public debt levels will rivals Greece's. Spain's private debt levels are crushing. It's because they have more access to liquidity. For some reason the markets trust western Europe more.

and this is beyond complex so odds are we're going to just have to overview a large analysis paper....is what are the effects globally? We know the Bank of Scotland has a lot of loans but it seems we do not know what's off the books and more odious, exactly what the total CDSes are as well as other MBS derivatives. Then, in terms of a sovereign default...I have no idea what that means and despite the claims in the major press that Abu Dhabi is just going to bail them out, then we read "case by case basis" to
more of a "kiss our ass" we're not going to do anything.

I wrote about this quite a bit about a year ago because it disturbs me to no end to listen to these "architects" of this glorified global cheap markets/labor arbitrage and know they have absolutely no analysis, no idea, no clue....on how national economies now interact. It makes the financial sector "systemic risk" look like a minor ripple from a skipping rock during a tsunami.

Nice to write about Vietnam, which was completely overshadowed.

I think Dubai hits such a nerve because of oil and also the beyond belief, almost "tower of babel" architecture.

Lord knows the dominoes are perched.