Getting This Economy Going: Five Impactful Ideas

Over my career, I have been fortunate to meet many very talented individuals who have passed along great advice and knowledge that I can apply in my life. Way too often, people focus on the symptoms of the problem instead of focusing on the cause. By focusing on the causing factors and solving the problem, the symptoms tend to go away. That is why successful people are successful - they focus on what matters!

With the current economy, we can focus on the unemployment, foreign trade, mortgage problems, housing market, credit markets, tax reform, financial services reform, and the list goes on. These are all good areas to work on, but does will focusing on these areas first and foremost really solve the problem or the symptoms? Are we investing a lot of time and money on areas that really do not fix the problem? I truly feel that that is the case.

So what is the problem that many seem not to see? Jobs, and we need more of them. It is amazing the ripple effect that an increase in jobs could have on the economy. Here are a few examples:

• Consumer Spending: Working people spend money. Seventy percent of the US economy comes from consumer spending. The basic math is more jobs equal more employment, which translates to more money being pushed into the economy.
• Housing: People concerned about their jobs do not buy homes. Give them a solid job, and then they will. This improves the real estate backlog, home prices and all the businesses that grow with housing.
• Taxes: More jobs equal more tax dollars and most importantly, it reduces those dependent on social programs such as unemployment, subsidized housing, welfare, etc.
• Credit Markets: More people working produce more growth opportunity within the economy and banks will feel more comfortable lending. This starts the development cycle again.

My concern about many of the programs being proposed is that they really do not produce jobs, especially jobs that will have an impact on the long term success of the U.S. Our infrastructure is failing and many of the programs being proposed do not really incentivize companies to hire. For example, there is a 2 percent Social Security reduction that is supposed to stimulate the economy, but it does nothing to create jobs.

Here are five ideas that I feel would have a tremendous impact.

1. Tax credits to hire new employees. Maybe 50 percent of the first year cost. That is a great incentive to hire, and it takes someone off unemployment so the cost is rather neutral to the government.

2. Develop long-term infrastructure programs that make sense. Here in New Jersey, we have a new Met Life Stadium (Giants Stadium), soccer stadium (Red Bull), Devils stadium (the Rock) and a bunch of others. A lot of government funds or subsidies were used for many of these projects but did those create many long-term jobs? I think not, as many of those jobs were already there. Focusing our resources on roads, trains, airports, bridges and renewable energy will create jobs in the U.S. and benefit us in the future. Do we really need more billion-dollar-plus stadiums?

3. Focus on developing a competitive edge. Some jobs will be lost to competition. Specially, certain labor-intensive jobs will predictably be lost to China and other areas where labor costs are substantially lower. A focus should be on educating the people of the U.S. on the areas we can compete in, thereby fueling the job growth within our society.

4. Take control of money. U.S. companies hold billions overseas and if they bring these funds back, they have to pay a hefty amount in taxes. Because of that, these companies develop businesses overseas and take resources away from the US. This is nuts. Let's help them get the money back if they guarantee they will focus these dollars on creating U.S. jobs and developing our economy.

5. Lending to small business. Many banks are not lending due to the risk, and simply buy U.S. treasuries with no risk and a guaranteed profit. Why not have lending rules that require small-business lending by banks or they would have to pay more for money or get hit with additional taxes? There should be a ratio that they can lend to a small business without jeopardizing their book of business while still helping the economy.

These are simply a few ideas I jotted down while watching a recent Steelers/49ers game. They probably won't earn me a Nobel prize. The root of the problem is the jobs market and in order for everything to get back to normal, we need more jobs infiltrating the economy. To play an instrumental role in getting our economy off its feet again, we need to strategize, strategize, strategize. Or maybe it's simpler than that. Let's just do what it takes to stimulate job growth because without that, society as we know it may be at a standstill.