Recession and Unemployment: "Old Poor" or "New Poor"

Misery With Plenty of Company

By Bob Herbert

Professor Edelman broke the poor into two categories: the new poor, who have lost jobs and homes and otherwise been clobbered by the recession; and the old poor, who in many cases had previously been working, sometimes sporadically or part time, at jobs that didn’t pay much. Many of those low-paying jobs have since vanished and the old poor have just been crushed.

Read more at NY Times

Recession's psychic impact

By Gregory Rodriguez

Unemployment is at 9.8 percent. One in every 492 homes received a foreclosure notice in November. Those are devastating figures. And even for those who are still employed, and still making the rent or the mortgage payment, hard times are taking a psychic toll.

Even for the luckiest among us, living through an economic downturn feels a little bit like renting a high-performance car and having to drive it in first gear, or walking on proverbial eggshells while chatting with a cranky relative, or taking a stroll around the block with a sprained ankle.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer

With jobs still scarce, Obama dances closer to business. But is it a detente?


by the Christian Science Monitor Editorial Board

In just a few weeks, Mr. Obama has pivoted from saving key industries – housing, finance, and auto – to wooing business as a political ally. And instead of pointing fingers at “fat cats” on Wall Street or in health insurance, he now sounds more like Calvin Coolidge, saying: “We can’t succeed unless American businesses succeed.”


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No, the Jobs Crisis Isn't Over: What's the Progressive Plan?

by Les Leopold

Stop for a moment and ask yourself: Just what is the left's plan to create the 22 million full-time jobs we need to get back to a 5 percent unemployment rate (the going definition of full employment)? Where's our plan for creating the equivalent of 650 corporations the size of Apple, each employing about 35,000 people? Do we really think it's enough to beg the Republicans for a larger stimulus program?

Read more at Huffington Post


Their job is to create jobs

by LA Times Editorial

What most Americans want is to reduce unemployment through faster economic growth. If the GOP's zeal to shrink the federal government causes it to ignore the lingering economic misery, it's destined to be written off by voters as out of touch, just as Democrats were in 2010.

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