A Bold Approach to the Jobs Emergency brought together leading policymakers, thinkers, and activists to discuss how we can get the U.S. to full employment and create more good jobs, but that was only the beginning of the conversation.

Our jobs conference in early June covered a wide variety of potential solutions to what we call the jobs emergency, from major macro policies to local activist ones. Given how little is done in Washington to solve the problem, it is stunning how many good ideas are out there.      

Senator Tom Harkin, who has sponsored the most comprehensive jobs bill in Congress, set the stage with a keynote address that made no bones about it: we are not creating enough good jobs in America -- not by a long shot. Perhaps his key point of many was that we don’t have to choose between closing the budget deficit and making goods jobs. “Smart policies designed to reduce unemployment will also act to reduce the deficit,” he said. If we grow, create goods jobs that pay high wages, and encourage investment, the deficit will also fall, as it always has before when economies recovery strongly. It’s a win-win.

But Washington is stymying progress. That's why, he said, we must end the filibuster.

Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, assured us there is no deficit problem for the next 10 years, so we shouldn’t be focusing on it. Several of our macroeconomists called for much more fiscal stimulus.

One cause of job deficits may well be Wall Street itself. Damon Silvers of the AFL-CIO talked about how Wall Street has misdirected investment from productive uses. Rosemary Batt of Cornell University discussed how privatization puts downward pressure on wages and jobs. Bill Lazonick of the University of Massachusetts Lowell stressed how cash-rich companies use money to buy back shares rather than invest in America.

Participants in the conference talked about creating jobs through infrastructure investment, community investments, and outright job creation by the federal government a la FDR. Others discussed the need to raise labor standards and enforce the existing labor laws.

Local activists offered refreshing perspective. Maya Wiley of the Center for Social Inclusion said we must not think that one-size-fits-all solutions are good enough. We have to bore down to the particulars. Ai Jen Poo wondered why we have so many unemployed when we have so many needs. For example, there is a desperate need for adequately paid care workers. Why can’t we get supply and demand to come together?

And Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin told us of her disappointing experience at a local jobs fair, where she saw the poor quality of jobs being offered. She asked the room why so many poor jobs were being created, and how long will this go on.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, who also had a job creation bill before Congress, summed up the issue. “This is the seminal battle of our time," she told the conference. “A battle for our economy, a battle for fairness, a battle for the heart and soul of our country. This is a battle that has to be waged all around the country.”     

We at Rediscovering Government will make the jobs emergency our number one priority. Videos of the conference panels and keynotes are now available on our web site. We will also publish transcripts and eventually produce a book on the best jobs ideas in the country. We will provide background papers on policy proposals we make. Everyone in the nation should have a decent job if he or she wants one. As far as we are concerned, it’s one of our inalienable rights.

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Jeff Madrick is the Director of the Roosevelt Institute’s Rediscovering Government initiative and author of Age of Greed.

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Take Me Out to the Ball Game — But Pay Me a Living Wage (Bill Moyers)

Michael Winship writes on the side of America's pastime that isn't making the big bucks: concession workers. The company contracted by the San Francisco Giants pays their staff only $11,000 per year and puts impossible limits on obtaining benefits.

Why a Romney economic adviser wants the government to just hire people (WaPo)

Dylan Matthews spoke to Kevin Hassett, economic advisor to Republican candidates in the past four presidential elections, who has come to realize that unless the government intervenes, the long term unemployed are going to stay that way.

America Just Loves Firing Government Workers (The Atlantic)

Jordan Weissman is tired of watching Washington sabotage the economy by laying off federal employees. For every ten jobs we've added in the last three months, the government has shed one.

No, Public Sector Jobs Do Not Crowd Out Private Sector Ones (On The Economy)

Jared Bernstein has run the numbers, and there's no proof that creating more government jobs would reduce growth in the private sector. That raises the question: why aren't we creating more government jobs so that more people are employed?

Unemployment Benefits and Actual Unemployment: An Analogy (NYT)

Paul Krugman makes an excellent analogy between unemployment benefits and speed limits. We would not expect less rush hour traffic if the speed limit were raised from 55 to 65, so why do people think cutting benefits will reduce unemployment?

I Would Desire That You Pay the Ladies (TAP)

E.J. Graff wonders how we are still dealing with the wage gap, fifty years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act. One option she suggests is that our real societal taboo is money, and perhaps by not discussing it women don't notice that it's missing.

The Quiet Closing of Washington (Robert Reich)

Robert Reich argues that as partisan conflict halts Congress, partisan control in the states is creating a deepening policy divide between red states and blue states. He's worried that this split will make it hard to see "one nation."

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Why the Right is Wrong About Jobs (Market Watch)

Rex Nutting argues that the structural difficulties in hiring, like cost of labor, taxes, and (according to its detractors) Obamacare, don't explain the lack of job growth right now. The Keynesian model seems to make more sense: lack of demand, lack of new jobs.

Fix Bankrupt Student Loan Proposals (WaPo)

Katrina vanden Heuvel doesn't understand how legislators could fail to take action to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling. While the Fed gives discounted loans to the big banks, Congress can't seem to get around to helping students.

Fed Reports American Households Have Regained Ground Lost in the Recession (NYT)

Nelson Schwartz notes that things are looking up according to a new Fed report that shows the net worth of American households is higher than before the recession. But once those numbers are adjusted for inflation, the good news shrinks along with Americans' bank accounts.

When Patents Attack (NPR)

Ira Glass and the "This American Life" team look into the world of patent lawsuits, where companies use the vague language permitted by our patent system to make millions. The defendants include businesses like coffee shops, because offering wifi is patented.

• Roosevelt Take: Roosevelt Institute Fellow Susan Crawford tackled the question of patent trolls on Up with Chris Hayes in December 2012.

New Report Shows How Walmart Forces Its Employees to Live on the Dole (MoJo)

Thomas Stackpole reports that we finally have data backing up the claim that Walmart lets taxpayers subsidize its operating costs. Walmart's 300 Wisconsin stores cost taxpayers $67.5 million per year in benefits to employees and their families.

Striking Workers Bring Bangladesh Safety Demand to Walmart Headquarters (The Nation)

Josh Eidelson continues his coverage of the OUR Walmart strikes leading up to the company's shareholder meeting today. The strikers emphasize Walmart's unwillingness to join the union-backed safety agreement in Bangladesh despite the deaths at Rana Plaza.

Costco CEO Craig Jelinek Leads the Cheapest, Happiest Company in the World (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Brad Stone says that Costco is proof that even discount retailers can be profitable while providing good jobs with fair wages and benefits. As we discuss raising the minimum wage and Walmart workers strike, Costco's model becomes even more important.

Young, Black, Gifted and Underemployed (The Root)

Edward Wyckoff Williams reminds us that some things aren't changing: unemployment and underemployment are dramatically higher for young people of color. Even highly educated African American young people find it disproportionately hard to find work.

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The GOP doesn’t oppose Richard Cordray. It opposes his whole agency. (WaPo)

Roosevelt Fellow Mike Konczal explains why Republican opposition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is based on falsehoods. Unfortunately, filibusters mean that Republican temper tantrums about the power of the CFPB translate to blocking any director.

Did I get the money-and-politics debate all wrong? (WaPo)

Ezra Klein responds to critiques of his own pieces on money and politics, including Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Mark Schmitt's take, which he mostly agrees with. Unsurprisingly, spending lots of time fundraising doesn't make for better legislators.

• Roosevelt Take: Mark Schmitt argued that the big issue isn't the general election, but all the money that has to be raised to get there.

Walmart Workers Launch First-Ever 'Prolonged Strikes' Today (The Nation)

Josh Eidelson reports on the strikes in Miami, Massachusetts, and the Bay Area, which are the first multi-day strikes again Walmart. Worker-activist Dominic Ware's biggest fear? That his son will have to work for Walmart too.

Beware Capitalist Tools (Robert Reich)

Robert Reich doesn't understand why Forbes writers would argue that it's a bad thing for government to condition market access on the social benefits we receive from corporations. Why wouldn't we want to tell corporations to put jobs here?

Central Banks Act With a New Boldness to Revitalize Economies (NYT)

Binyamin Appelbaum, Jack Ewing, Hiroko Tabuchi, and Landon Thomas Jr. note that once-cautious central banks have become more aggressive in recent years, taking action to get their countries' economies moving while their governments are stuck on austerity.

When Sequestration Becomes Devastation (Bloomberg)

Evan Soltas wants us to look ahead to sequestration’s effect on the 2014 budget, because if we think things are bad today then we haven't seen anything yet. Next year’s cuts aren’t automatic -- the House gets to decide where to cut deeper.

Like a Bad Cough: Why Austerity Economics Lingers (HuffPo)

Steven Conn thinks the reason we can't get past austerity economics is that we're treating a set of moral propositions about wealth, self-denial, and work as hard science. But when something doesn't work in chemistry, the chemists start a new experiment.