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This is my first post for AOL Real Estate. I am honored to be part of the new AOL.

But if this is AOL Real Estate, why then am I writing about jobs? Because employment growth is key to ending the real estate depression (yes, depression) we have all been suffering through for more than a year. The key to real estate recovery is more jobs, simple as that. And unfortunately, according to my friends who attended this week's White House Jobs Summit, we can expect little to no real help on jobs from the Obama Administration.

This White House event was a sham, a photo opp meant solely to influence public opinion without actually doing anything, according to attendees. This can be seen, for example, in the coverage by USA Today, which proudly quoted statements by the President about what had been accomplished in the sessions, yet USA Today said their interview took place two hours before the event even started.

How could Obama know in advance what would be accomplished?


According to people who were there (and spoke to me anonymously because they want to be invited back) the President reportedly made no real connection with people in the room. He knew at least half of them personally, yet addressed them in the small space reading from a teleprompter. In the private breakout sessions he breezed through, Obama said there was no federal money to help jobs, not much anyway. That's hardly what he said in his public remarks, which were much more upbeat.

Which position is the truth?

Nobody I talked to from the meeting came away with a sense of optimism, that anything of substance had been accomplished or even set in motion. They felt used.

This doesn't bode well for a real housing recovery that can be sustained after the first-time home buyer tax credits finally expire next year.

And it may seem a small point, but why did the Administration invite all these leaders to meet for six hours (it was scheduled from 11:30-5:30 and ended on-time) yet offer them no breaks and nothing to eat or drink, not even a bottle of water? Attendees are treated better than that each weekend in the Avoiding Foreclosure seminars down at the Holiday Inn. Couldn't Obama have hired a couple of caterers?

That would have been two jobs down, 10 million to go.
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Tags: employment, jobs, Obama Administration, white house jobs summit

Reader Comments (Page 2 of 8)

21. sieben13 on Sunday, Dec 13th at 08:11:PM said...

iT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR PRESIDENT ACHIEVES, it will not be exceptable because of who he is, The repuglican party spends millions on down playing,spreading lies and false rumors about President Obama & his administration. rush (the addict)limbaugh said what the repuglican party thinks ( We hope he Fails )

22. Susan on Wednesday, Dec 16th at 07:54:PM said...

Bush made some mistakes! However, never did I ever feel that he was dishonest. Obama is our country's worst nightmare. God help us when we are no longer the country I love!

23. Jim on Thursday, Dec 10th at 08:56:PM said...

I realize the US market is not in great shape, but is it really that different from the Canadian market? Usually the Canadian market lags the US. See for example:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/in-vancouver-camping-out-for-condos-is-norm-again/article1392003/

I'm on the Toronto area, far from Vancouver, but housing prices here are pretty much back to where they were before the economic crisis started. "Real estate depression"? I assume that is a bit of hyperbole.

24. Steve on Thursday, Dec 10th at 09:55:PM said...

Bush Derangement Syndrome is still alive?

25. Adam on Thursday, Dec 10th at 10:33:PM said...

Bob,
The RSS feed next your name ( http://www.housingwatch.com/writers/robert-x-cringely/rss.xml ) doesn't actually list just your articles on this site. Is there any way that can be fixed so we can just read your articles?

Thanks!

26. Steve McKisic on Thursday, Dec 10th at 11:16:PM said...

Good article, Bob.

Job creation - at least the kind that boosts the economy enough to revitalize the real estate market - is a no-brainer. Jobs come from private sector companies hiring people. Government boosts private sector job creation by easing government-imposed costs. (e.g. lowering taxes)

Obama is about empowering government, not revitalizing the private sector. Thank you for a refreshingly honest assessment of the current administration's attitude toward the private sector, Bob.

27. cowboyesfan on Thursday, Dec 10th at 11:41:PM said...

House prices going down means more affordable housing and more people that can afford to buy a house.

Why on earth would anyone want housing prices to go up faster than inflation?

28. DEE on Sunday, Dec 13th at 02:35:PM said...

who can afford to buy a house if they do not have a job!!!

29. TomK on Sunday, Dec 13th at 06:12:PM said...

G I don't know. Perhaps the crashing home prices are not only bankrupting America, but Americans. You are a dolt. Not everyone should buy a home. Its attitudes like your's that got us into this mess in the first place. Not to mention as was stated above, regardless of home prices if no one has a job, no one can buy the home. Unless your perverted idea is to have the government step in, take everyones houses and doll them out as they are trying to do with health care. Wake up. You are whats wrong with this country!!

30. cowboyesfan on Sunday, Dec 13th at 07:37:PM said...

I think any attempts to keep 2 bedroom/1 bath houses priced at $700k in Los Angeles or San Francisco or Palo Alto, etc. will be futile and meaningless.

Historically, renting has always been more expensive than buying a house.

It is not perverted to want people to spend less on housing.

31. Edmund on Friday, Dec 11th at 06:14:AM said...

Good points - on the employment side of the equation, very little seems to have been said about the longer term benefits to universal health care freeing Americans from the risks of loosing heath insurance when the switch jobs or start working for themselves. American is an amazingly productive country yet we shackle most employees to jobs by terminating their health care when they change jobs or leave their job.

For most people, starting a new business means either living without health care or tying a spouse to a job that provides health care.

There's much less incentive to move to another job (and change houses) when it means that you're going to have to live with minimal to zero insurance for a few months. This affect the older workers (more likely to be able to afford to move) than the younger workers.

32. judsea sandi on Sunday, Dec 13th at 05:52:PM said...

hey, Edmund, Not everyone is stupid enough to take a job worse off than the one they want to leave. Most people change employment to a position that IMPROVES their situation. No one I know would take a job of less pay or less benefit than what they have now. To give you an example, I switched jobs 5 years ago. When I started my new job, I started at a rate more than I was paid on my old job, and a choice of two different insurance plans. Any one who would take a job for less must think like you.

33. Mark on Friday, Dec 11th at 09:24:AM said...

Ditto on the RSS question. I would like to add you to my google reader stream. How do we do that?

34. Mohammed on Friday, Dec 11th at 08:28:AM said...

Addicted to what you write Mr. Cringely. pbs, your personal blog, and now here.
Looking forward to your future articles.

35. l.a.guy on Friday, Dec 11th at 05:17:PM said...

As someone who followed the financial meltdown and real estate collapse closely, here's what I don't understand; peak employment during 2002-2007 was based upon a fiction cheap money, unrestrained leverage and a real estate price bubble that culminated in a catastrophic financial meltdown.

Even in the best of times the economy needs to create ~100,000 jobs per month just to keep pace with population growth; so how is it possible to get back to anything approaching 4-5% unemployment when it was predicated on unsustainable fantasy to begin with?

The government policies seem to be an attempt to get back to "Oz" through loan modifications, endless "stimulus" and more cheap money. It doesn't look to me like we ever really had an economy capable of sustaining 4-5% unemployment, but we certainly don't now. I'm concerned that we just keep digging a bigger hole.

I think 7-8% unemployment is going to be the new "normal" and I would expect that we're going to be in an economic funk for years to come.

36. Wellsaid on Sunday, Dec 13th at 02:37:PM said...

You got that RIGHT.
BTW: Since we have already shipped our industries and jobs out of the country. The only way left to reduce unemployment to under 5% is for 25% of our population to leave. Condo's in China, Pakistan, ?

37. Charles Moorehead on Friday, Dec 11th at 06:17:PM said...

Don't expect the government to help people find a job. They seem more concerned with helping the same people who caused this mess in the first place.

You might find some useful ideas at my website shown below:

http://www.moneymagic1-2-3.com

Good luck.

38. atrain on Sunday, Dec 13th at 03:27:PM said...

why did obama not invite the national chamber of commerce or even the black chamber of commerce, because this was just what the article states it was a sham.

39. William Radvanyi on Friday, Dec 11th at 07:21:PM said...

For a Canadian perspective on Real Estate you could check out http://www.easysafemoney.com

40. Dave Barnes on Sunday, Dec 13th at 11:04:AM said...

A better comment system is needed here. Disqus perhaps?

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