Snow Job.

Snow Defends Mankiw's Outsourcing Gaffe

(Mankiw is Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the CEA, who said last week that outsourcing of U.S. jobs while painful is a 'temporary dislocation.' He neglected to define 'temporary.')

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary John Snow on Tuesday defended U.S. corporations' right to send U.S. jobs offshore to cheaper-labor countries, and said a more productive source for jobs might be found by breaking down global trade barriers.

Snow was asked on CNBC television whether he would advise U.S. corporations to reduce the rate at which they are "outsourcing" U.S. jobs by having them performed in countries like China and India.

"I think American companies need to do what they need to do to be competitive, and as they're competitive, it's good for their shareholders, it's good for their consumers and it's good for their employees," Snow said.

Good for their employees? It should be noted that Secretary Snow was CEO of CSX a railroad company. Just the kind of leading edge guy you need running the world's largest economy. Forbes rates him as an 'also-ran' as a CEO. I think that frames his comments rather nicely. Moving right along.

He added: "Enterprises that don't succeed don't create many jobs."

As Bob Somerby would say: Try to believe he said it. Hard to argue with Snow's statement there. Why does my head ache?

Snow was interviewed from New York, where he visited Wall Street investment houses and made multiple television appearances repeating that the economy was growing and that as it does so, "lots of jobs are going to be created."

Far be it for me to disagree with Secretary Snow, but the economy has to grow at a greater rate than it currently is to create lots of jobs. Why this very week, it has been reported that durable goods orders are down, January new home sales slipped, and people filing for unemployment are on the rise. A mixed picture at best.

He declined to specify how many jobs might be created, though, and how many of the roughly 2.8 million factory jobs lost since the Bush administration took office might be regained this year.

"I'd like it to be the biggest possible number," Snow said, maintaining his distance from a forecast in the Economic Report to the President earlier this month that 2.6 million jobs could be created this year, comparing this year's average employment with last year's average.

No argument there. I'd like to see big numbers too!

Link to incredible statements

You just can't make this stuff up. No one would believe you.

With people such as this operating the levers of power, it's hard to be optimistic. I really hope these quotes are out of context. If they aren't, I think regime change is a must. And what's with his eyebrows? He oughta get those things trimmed. Somebody'll get an eye put out from those things.