If the current weakness of our economy is not already apparent to everybody, some additional signs of that weakness are painfully convincing.
Just three months ago, about a fourth of the financial experts surveyed by the National Association for Business Economists predicted that our economy would grow by a dismal 2 percent or less over the coming year. But now, the number of those economists predicting such weak growth has risen to 85 percent.
The association also expects that fewer businesses will be hiring over the next year than had been previously hoped.
Those figures are obviously of concern in a time of 9 percent nationwide unemployment. But what makes the current high unemployment figure even more disturbing is that nearly 5 million of the jobless have been out of work for a year or more. Many have burned through their savings and some have lost their homes. Now they are having to rely on limited unemployment benefits and the help of family and friends. They're enduring real hardship.
But so long as the federal government continues to threaten heavier regulation and higher taxes, companies will have great uncertainty and little incentive to invest in expansions that generate jobs. That same uncertainty means individuals will remain reluctant to spend. That means less economic activity and even more diminished prospects for job creation.
Given the failure of heavy government intervention in the economy, why don't we at least attempt a return to the free-enterprise, limited-government model that made America great?