In the last post I talked about why the employment level had to reset and did and about how normal growth in employment appears to have restarted. That alone would argue that employment will come back over time, but there are also other reasons why the employment recovery will be faster than most people expect at this time.

Nothing concrete to report on today, but the discussion continues to get more interesting. One article in particular that is worth a look is an op-ed piece on page 9 of the Financial Times (FT), “How the US should avoid falling off the fiscal cliff.” It was written by Glenn Hubbard, current dean of Columbia Business School, former chairman of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, and an economic consultant to the Romney campaign. He has some credibility when it comes to representing the Republican economic point of view.

And his points are both largely typical of that point of view and economically sensible—raising revenue is about raising average tax rates, not marginal rates; spending cuts should be a larger part of the solution than tax increases for growth reasons. It’s when you take a closer look at the details that it gets interesting. Let’s go to some direct quotes. Hubbard writes:

• “There are ways to raise revenue without increasing marginal rates. Tax deductions should be scaled back, especially in the areas of mortgage interest, charitable giving, and employer provided health insurance.”
• “The first step is to raise average (not marginal) tax rates on upper-income taxpayers. Revenue increases should come first from these individuals. This means closing loopholes.” He then goes on to discuss limiting deductions overall.

Guest post from Peter Essele, senior investment research analyst

On this metric, the U.S. is poised for success. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), New York Times (NYT), and Financial Times (FT) all have stories on the International Energy Agency’s new World Energy Outlook 2012, which reports that the U.S. will be the largest producer of oil in the world by 2020 and a net oil exporter by around 2030. The story made the front page of both the WSJ, with “US Redraws World Oil Map,” and the FT, with “US to be world’s top energy producer,” but it only made it to page B6 in the NYT. Tells you something right there.

The headline story is great and underlines the point I have been making for a while that things are changing. The oil and gas industry is creating U.S. jobs directly, and it will do so indirectly as well by providing a lower cost base for manufacturers. In fact, last week the FT reported that German industrial companies are formally warning that they expect to lose jobs because of it.

In the last post we examined the decline in consumer demand and what it meant for employment, which left us asking: What about the future?

I have been spending a great deal of time recently developing an analysis of the U.S. economy, which I presented at Commonwealth’s National Conference. The key issue for everyone is jobs and employment. Why has the recovery been so slow, what can we do to make it better, and when can we expect it to get back to normal?

The good news on the real economy continues, with consumer confidence hitting a five-year high, per the New York Times (NYT) over the weekend. We are now at a level that is pretty close to the historical average, which illustrates just how bad things have been from a consumer point of view. A five-year high just gets us back to the average? Much of this is due to improvements in the current conditions index, which is mostly about the labor market, and improvements in expectations.

One of my major reasons for cheer about the U.S. economy has been the evolving energy situation. Breakthroughs in oil and gas drilling have made U.S. prices for natural gas the world’s lowest and have started us on the road to again becoming the world’s largest producer of oil, as well as potentially making us energy independent.

Beyond that, though, we are developing other energy-producing technologies that are more sustainable and more diversified. I have debates with friends about the role these will play going forward, but, in my opinion, there’s no doubt that having the technologies developed makes us more secure. There’s nothing like having a backup plan.

Once again, the papers lead with the fiscal cliff: “Pressure Rises on Fiscal Crisis” from the front page of the Wall Street Journal, “Congress Sees Rising Urgency on Fiscal Deal” from the New York Times, and “Schumer appeals to business on the fiscal cliff” in the Financial Times.

The good news is that everyone gets it, and both parties seem to feel a sense of urgency in dealing with this. Speaker Boehner has gone on record saying that additional revenue could be doable—which might be a concession, or might not. The President has been quoted saying he doesn’t think we will go off the cliff, but he hasn’t said why not.

Bob Woodward is known for writing books that let readers imagine that they are first-hand witnesses at critical political events. With a depth of reporting and access matched by few, he specializes in telling the stories that affect our lives as played out in Washington, DC.