In
the 1960s, mutual fund magnate Bernie Cornfeld used a key question to winnow
prospective new employees. It was: "Do you sincerely want to be rich?"
Cornfled's view was that anybody could get rich if they really wanted to. The
reason there weren't more rich people, in his view, was that most people
weren't willing to do what it takes to become rich and thus didn't really want
to be.
If
we alter the question just a little for today's situation and ask if
Washington, by which I mean the president and Congress, really want more jobs
for Americans, the answer must be no.
Let
me give you just two quick examples of why I say that. A few days ago I was in
Singapore meeting with, among others, some old friends from Singapore's
Economic Development Board. This is the government body in charge of promoting
exports, attracting foreign investment and technology to Singapore, and of
generally planning and executing the city-state's economic strategy. As always,
I was impressed with the comprehensive strategic thinking of these people and
of their single-minded pursuit of investment, technology, and jobs that could
be brought to or developed in Singapore.
I
went from these meetings to have a drink with a senior U.S. Commerce Department
official who happened to be in the neighborhood. Now remember that one of the
much-publicized Obama administration initiatives of the past couple of years
has been the export doubling program of the
Commerce Department's Foreign Commercial Service.
The idea was that every $1 billion of exports generates about 15,000 jobs and
that doubling exports would therefore generate lots of jobs and drive
unemployment down. It was and is a good idea. So you can imagine my surprise
when the official explained that, although not yet announced, the Commerce
Department is planning to reduce the staff of the Foreign Commercial Service. I
guess Obama and his new, inexperienced commerce secretary think the service
will do more with less, but the reality is that it will do less with less. And
this was the plan before the recent debt ceiling deal. In the wake of that, the
likelihood is that the service will get even less and perhaps do nothing.
From
Singapore, I proceeded to Tel Aviv, where I have involved in an evaluation of
the work of several U.S.-Israel bi-national foundations for promoting science,
agricultural research, and industrial research and development. Created in the
1970s with a total endowment paid equally by both governments of about $300
million, these foundations have been making grants to Israeli and U.S.
scientists, researchers, and corporations for the past thirty five years. In
that time, they have been associated with several Nobel Prizes, the development
and commercialization of an astonishingly wide variety of new technologies,
products, and processes, and the creation of tens of thousands, if not hundreds
of thousands, of U.S. (as well as Israeli) jobs.
The
problem for the foundations at the moment is that they have not had their
endowments topped up since the early 1980s. They have therefore been requesting
that both governments renew and increase their contribution commitments. Now
we're not talking real money here. No trillions or billions. Not even hundreds
of millions. Just a few millions or even thousands. Crumbs off the table,
really.
Well,
fractious and combative as it is, the Israeli government sincerely wants to be
a technology leader and to create jobs and has therefore put its money where
its mouth is. It has committed not only to maintaining the old funding but to
increasing it, contingent on the U.S. government doing the same.
Yes,
you guessed it. There's the rub. No one in Washington is even considering a
replenishment of or increase in the endowment, because, truth be told,
Washington does not sincerely want to create new jobs.
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