US jobs lost in recession may never return again

All last week I was frantic waiting for my invitation to the White House Jobs Summit to arrive. I thought about crashing, but recent events persuaded me that was neither prudent nor proper. Besides, my red kimono was at the dry cleaners.

Something tells me my views wouldn't have been well received. I would have told President Barack Obama he faces significant obstacles in his effort to create jobs before the voters go to the polls in November 2010.

I'm not talking about the legality of "mobilizing" unused funds from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, as Obama put it in a speech at Washington's Brookings Institution; or the inherent contradiction in "government job creation," as if government can create jobs without commanding resources the private sector could have used to provide something the public wants.