Our non-partisan friends at the Office of Legislative Research have posted a timely link on their blog, the OLR Reporter, to public radio’s always interesting “This American Life.” The episode is entitled, “How to create a job.”

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, his staff and the legislature might give it a listen before next week’s special session on jobs.

“It seems like every politician has a plan for putting people back to work,” the show says. “But we and the Planet Money team couldn’t help but wonder…how do you create a job? Can politicians truly create many jobs? Is it possible the whole thing is just well-intentioned hot air?”

Among other things, the show tackles the question of when can politicians really claim credit for jobs. It also takes us to an economic development convention, where the game really seems to be stealing jobs from other states, not creating them.

And host Ira Glass talks to one governor who held a press conference to announce the creation of…one job.

No, it wasn’t anyone you know.

Mark is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.

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