President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson... emphasize the importance of tax cuts for the wealthy and further economic and financial deregulation as the answer to the serious economic troubles facing our nation this year.

Both “solutions,” however, are largely responsible for the deteriorating macroeconomic situation we now face. A variety of economic indicators point to a serious economic downturn this year that will not be reversed by the same old conservative platitudes about tax cuts and financial deregulation. Job growth is slowing markedly after six years of already anemic employment growth. Consumer spending growth is in sharp decline, consumer bankruptcy filings jumped 40 percent last year, and manufacturing activity braked suddenly last month despite rising export growth fuelled by a weak dollar. (Get Real: Bush Economic Proposals Are All Wrong)

See, the real problem in our so-called economy is that the "economy" no longer works for a lot of us.

Once upon a time, many of us believed Ronald Reagan when he said that whatever was good for corporations would also be good for workers.

Reagan called this "trickle down economics" meaning that if we made the world sweet for corporations and the corporations experienced wonderful profits, then, those same corporations would turn right around and make life a little sweeter for ordinary Americans by giving us more jobs to choose from, better pay and better benefits.

Well, folks, in the globalization age, "Reaganomics" was always a mirage but while that formula may have had minor results in the 1980s, those days are over. There is no longer a substantial direct correlation between the profit margins of American corporations and the wages or income of middle class American citizens.

In fact, many statisticians continue to point out that there's even an inverse correlation. That is, the more jobs that American corporations send overseas, the more profit that American corporation makes.

It's a simple formula and it's not trickle down economics. It's two different economies. There's the economy of the middle class that is souring rapidly and then there's the economy of the globalized rich and their economy is showing enormous profits, a bright future and just little bumps in the road.

The majority of Americans are not able to enjoy prosperity when American multinational corporations are prosperous.

New numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that employment fell by 17,000 jobs in January, 2008. Employment growth has been relatively low for several years, but this month’s figures marked the first time since August 2003 that the economy actually lost jobs. January’s employment figures are the latest sign of a weakening economy and indicate that 2008 will be a tough year for workers.

The weak job market for both December and 2007 overall was driven by job losses in construction, manufacturing, and retail, with the housing market continuing to exert a downward pull on the economy. Job gains in healthcare, restaurants, and local government weren’t enough to compensate for these losses.

According to the new numbers, the economy added a meager 1.1 million jobs in 2007, and job growth was less than one percent. By contrast, the economy in the late 1990s was adding 3 million jobs per year and job growth was over 2.5 percent.

New unemployment figures for January also show worrisome results. The average length a person remained unemployed increased to 17.5 weeks, up nearly a week since December 2007. And average weekly earnings fell by $0.42 in seasonally adjusted terms during the same period.

The slumping housing market has also caused job losses in other subsectors such as building material and garden supply stores, where employment continued to fall. Driven by the declining housing market, construction shrunk by 27,000 jobs in January, with most of the job losses coming from residential building and residential specialty trade contractors.

Job losses continued to hit sectors including construction and manufacturing, which have seen steady declines, but losses also hit areas such as professional and business services and government that had been creating jobs. Manufacturing continued to constrict, losing 28,000 jobs for the month and 269,000 since January 2007. State government cut 24,000 jobs in January and professional and business services lost 11,000 jobs.

The new 2007 estimates also revised construction numbers, with a total loss of 278,000 jobs between January 2007 and January 2008.

During that same time period, America's largest corporations showed the largest profits in history.

What's good for American corporations in India or China is not necessarily good (and probably not good) for you and me.

Therefore, as congressional leaders consider measures to address the economic downturn, we suggest they craft a straightforward stimulus package with a limited number of components targeted on spurring demand and creating jobs.

Each component should be timely, targeted, and temporary. And each should be bolstered by strong arguments that it will have powerful stimulative effect. In short, we urge discipline and focus in crafting a compelling and progressive package not susceptible to predictable ideological counter-arguments.

We also urge firmness in rejecting conservative proposals that are neither stimulative nor targeted nor sound fiscal policy, regardless of their popular appeal...

We also believe that the heart of any progressive economic recovery plan should be a very significant effort to stem the decline of home values, which is at the center of our vicious economic circle...

(A Practical and Progressive Economic Stimulus and Recovery Plan)

The lesson to take away from recent labor market figures, as well as all previous ones of the recent business cycles, is that economic growth alone will not translate into rising fortunes for America’s workers.

Trickle down economics don't work anymore. Not that they ever did. But, they REALLY don't work now.

Policymakers need to find ways to crank up the country’s job engines and translate productivity growth into strong wage gains for American workers.

Our government and our elected representatives need to find ways to generate greater economic growth that benefits workers with increases in the number of well-paid, high-quality jobs.

The proposed stimulus package being discussed in Congress is a start but it mainly benefits corporations, stock holders and big time investors.

What is really needed is an economic recovery plan to first stabilize the housing market and then create the conditions for widely shared prosperity - for all Americans.