There’s No Business Like Faux Business
Let’s see. Mayor Anthony Foxx is tapped to chair the new Small Business Task Force of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and – presto! – we’re hit with a nicely dovetailed op-ed piece of pure hyperbole from U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in the uptown paper of record. Coincidence, I’m sure.
Or maybe it has something to do with the timing of Celgard breaking ground on its plant in Concord. You remember Celgard, right? The so-called green jobs company that pocketed nearly $70 million in combined federal and state subsidies.
Solis’ op-ed conveniently leaves out that tiny, multi-million-dollar tidbit, while lifting Celgard up as a shining example of why “Charlotte represents the future of the American economy.” Shelling out huge subsidies for select businesses, of course, being the future.
The economy is turning around, and Charlotte is helping drive it, proclaims the headline for Solis’ piece, and the Labor Secretary backs it up:
When President Obama took office 20 months ago, the country was losing an incomprehensible 800,000 jobs a month and the unemployment rate in the Charlotte area had nearly doubled in less than a year. Now the country is averaging almost 100,000 new jobs a month, and Charlotte is experiencing an employment rebound.
Really? When Char-Meck in July showed nearly 800 fewer jobs than when The Chosen One took the helm, about 7,000 more unemployed, with an unemployment rate stuck at nearly 11 percent, versus the 9 percent when Obama was busy delivering his inauguration speech?
And if this is Solis’ idea of the economy turning around, with national jobless claims last month at their highest level since November, the only place Charlotte is driving it is into a blind curve.
Maybe that’s why Foxx was picked to lead the Conference of Mayors’ Small Business Task Force. His solution to create jobs on the local front, offering lucrative subsidies to select companies accompanied by government intervention, regulation and red tape, perfectly mirrors the philosophy of the current administration.
Solis, of course, didn’t mention any of that, either.
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