, Columnist
Quit Blaming Europe for Bad Jobs News in the U.S.
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The timing of U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew’s trip to Europe this week couldn’t be better, given the extremely disappointing U.S. jobs report last week showing that only 88,000 new positions were created in March.
No doubt that’s a coincidence and the trip was long planned. But Lew didn’t break with the script that his predecessors have used on these jaunts to Europe, for Germany to boost consumer demand. He, too, is treating the visit as an opportunity to deflect attention back home from the real causes of bad economic news in the U.S.