Robert Reich: Shall We Call it a Depression Now?

[keep_it_real]

Today's employment report, showing that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, 320,000 in October, and 403,000 in September -- for a total of over 1.2 million over the last three months -- begs the question of whether the meltdown we're experiencing should be called a Depression.

We are falling off a cliff. To put these numbers into some perspective, the November losses alone are the worst in 34 years. A significant percentage of Americans are now jobless or underemployed -- far higher than the official rate of 6.7 percent. Simply in order to keep up with population growth, employment needs to increase by 125,000 jobs per month.

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2008/12/shall-we-call-it-depression-now.html

[Jackpine Radical]

1. The solution is very simple if you're a Republican.

Stop providing extended unemployment benefits. This will automatically reduce the unemployment rolls.

Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. I guess I'll need this: :sarcasm: