Written By: Garry CooperThe Jobs Summit, hosted by President Obama today, produced a flood of good news and optimism. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis hailed the drop in new November jobless claims, down to only 457,000 new claims. "This is great news, excellent news," said Solis, "Our projections indicate that if the current job loss trend continues at this rate, all the jobs in America will not dry up until the year 2017, or maybe even 2018."
Administration officials also described signs that the United States economy is slowly remaking itself. "People with jobs in Michigan have shown the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that is reawakening all over our country," said one administration official, "They have been auctioning off their jobs to the highest bidders and then taking early retirement to enjoy the hard earned fruits of their labors."
But others expressed concern that the bidding for jobs has gone so high that the new workers are forced to give the lion's share of their wages to the former job holders, in effect creating a new class of urban sharecroppers. Government officials also expressed worry that many of these transactions are taking place under the table to avoid paying income tax on the job sales. "We are taking every measure to stop this black market remarketing," said Treasury Secretary and former Wall Street overseer Timothy Geithner.
Geithner warned that violators will be dealt with "even more harshly" than he has dealt with Wall Street profiteers. "That's a threat?" said one black market re-marketer who asked that his identity be kept secret. "What does more harshly mean? He's gonna slap both my wrists and tell me not to do it again for six months instead of four?"
In another sign of the entrepreneurial spirit that, in President Obama's words, is going to "remake our economy," Chicago has opened up a Job Exchange, in which futures traders buy potential jobs that might open up at companies. "This promising new venture gives businesses an infusion of cash with which to create jobs or pay executive bonuses," explained Geithner, "When new jobs open up, the traders are reimbursed a percentage of the new employees' wages for 20 to 50 years."
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart announced at the Job Summit that it is doubling the number of greeters it's hiring across the country. "In the kind of neighbor-helping-neighbor spirit that our country has always exhibited," said company spokesman Robert Baron, "Our existing greeters have accepted a 50 percent pay cut in order to help us accommodate our new hires."
