I don’t want to hold up George Soros as the great thinker of the modern era. But, since the guy has billions of dollars (partly made by betting that currencies will collapse so if you are getting some of his money think of it as a make-up payment for leaving lots of people in bad shape) he gets to have a voice. He has a new book circulating and his people are sending around the chapter entitled, "An Economic Recovery Program". He says:

To prevent the economy from sliding into a depression,President Obama must embark on a radical and comprehensive policy package that has five major components:

1. A fiscal stimulus package

2. A thorough overhaul of the mortgage system

3. Recapitalization of the banking system

4. An innovative energy policy

5. Reform of the international financial system

   It’s instructive to me how Soros really misses the point–and, perhaps, it’s natural for a billionaire not to get the missing number six, which should actually be number one through six: if you don’t deal with the massive wage collapse that has taken place over the last three decades, his other suggestions won’t really sustain any kind of "economic recovery" as I understand it–meaning, that regular people won’t have to rely in the future on credit cards and other means to pay for basic expenses.

   I made this point a few weeks ago, calling the failure to focus primarily on the wage collapse as a "conspiracy of silence". Of course, a natural next thought is that if you want to deal with inflating wages, you have to promote broad unionization.