Furman right saying our economic problems are ‘high class’

Here’s how TV news works: What is just an annoyance becomes a concern. A concern turns into a serious worry. And a serious worry is elevated into a crisis. Stoking anxiety is how they keep the public glued.

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain recently got sucked into the cyclone when he approved of a tweet that called most of our current economic challenges “high class problems.”

The view that some positive developments lay behind current inflation and supply-chain woes mutated into cause for outrage.

How dare he imply that Pink Chick dolls possibly not getting from Chinese factories to American homes in time for Christmas was less than a threat to the American way? And have you noted that that despite a recent spike in gasoline prices, the roads don’t look especially empty?

Klain was quoting Harvard economist Jason Furman, who said: “Most of the economic problems we’re facing (inflation, supply chains, etc.) are high class problems. We wouldn’t have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10%. We would instead have had a much worse problem.”

We’re seeing backups at the ports because Americans are feeling flush and buying lots of stuff that gets shipped from Asia. We’re hearing about a labor shortage because businesses have beefed up their hiring. The competition for workers has led to a jump in pay for a group that has endured wage stagnation for decades. Is this a terrible thing?

Some have been blaming the tie-ups at ports on a lack of truck drivers. Todd Spencer, a trucking industry expert, says he’s been hearing about the driver shortage for years.

“What drivers all over the country tell us is that they can’t get loaded or unloaded.”

These temporary problems offer a great opportunity to bring back manufacturing — to make more of our stuff in this country.

Semiconductors, the little brains that run appliances, computers and cars, are in short supply. The scandal is that nearly all the world’s computer chips are made in Taiwan (or mainland China), rather than here. This sounds like an incentive to current efforts to build up a domestic semiconductor industry.

This is not to dismiss the challenges facing retailers and other businesses that relied on inexpensive labor and welloiled supply chains. But how many tears must be shed for cyclists who have to wait a while for their $1,200 bikes? As problems go, that’s pretty “high class,” don’t you think?

‘Most of the economic problems we’re facing (inflation, supply chains, etc.) are high class problems. We wouldn’t have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10%. We would instead have had a much worse problem.’

– JasonFurman, Harvard economist