More Unemployment

I guess things are getting rough on the job front right now. From the AP

“HARRISBURG, Pa. — Thousands of jobless Pennsylvanians are joining the growing ranks of people around the country who are exhausting unemployment benefits, as some experts worry about another blow to a stumbling economy.

Gov. Ed Rendell said 17,800 Pennsylvanians exhausted their jobless benefits in the week that ended Saturday, the first big wave of Pennsylvanians to do so. He urged legislators to pass a bill to extend the benefits.

Around the country, the number of people exhausting their benefits is piling up. By the end of September, more than 500,000 people will exhaust their benefits checks, with the biggest groups in Pennsylvania, California and Texas, according to estimates by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers based in New York City’

How we are going to deal with the crises of unemployment? Is the best solution to this problem is to do nothing and pray to the “invisible hand” of the free market to get things better? Is this sign that our nation is serious decline?

Personally, I do not have answers. The best way to deal with this problem is not to think about tommorow and only for live today. At least that is how I see it.

Obama’s Trip to Canada and Alberta Tar Sands

One that Obama needs to discuss with Canada is the status on Canada’s plan to drill in Alberta tar sands. The Alberta tar sands is where there is a huge area of oil deposits. When gasoline prices were spiking last year, there was significant effort to tap the reserves of the tar sands. However, there has been significant scheduling delays and cancellations of drilling

Environmentalists did not want that area to be drilled on because it would cause significant harm to the environment in Alberta. These projects are very expensive and any delays to them will results in the projects being shut down. Since the projects are expensive, the recent decline in energy projects has forced these projects to be sidelined because the oil companies would be incurring significant losses if they decided to drill there with oil being $35 a gallon. While the severe recession might has caused oil prices to decrease, it might have robbed us of a good source of potential energy.

It would be good idea if Obama to discusses this issue with Steven Harper because we are going to need all of the energy that we can get because the next spike in oil prices can occur at any time.