Army of unemployed is now entrenched in U.S.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Slowly, over the last year, it’s begun to dawn on us: The economic recovery isn’t really making a dent in unemployment.

The public knew this much earlier than economists or pundits did, and as for politicians — don’t ask!


Survey after survey showed Americans didn’t believe the economy was recovering. And people who commented on MarketWatch articles have been downright hostile to any notion that either the markets or the economy were getting better.

But economists need hard data before changing their minds. And over the past few months, more and more of them have concluded that indeed the depth of this particular recession and its roots in the financial crisis have combined with structural changes in the economy to push the so-called “natural” unemployment rate in the U.S. permanently higher

If they’re right, it would be bad news for millions of Americans whose prospects are bleak enough already. It also would make the U.S. economy more like the Europe we’ve routinely derided — without the social safety net European countries typically provide


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/army-of-unemployed-is-now-entrenched-in-us-2011-10-14?pagenumber=1

[dkf]

1. Our economy was being pumped up by a housing bubble

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Better Than What We Have Now

.

[dkf]

3. Maybe thats what they thought too.

Hey you've just justified the bankers.

[bhikkhu]

4. ...and one explanation is that energy supplies are insufficient to drive economic growth

which then becomes largely a problem of geology, as our primary energy sources are fossil fuels and they certainly have their limits.

Not to say that "nothing can be done", but most of the proposed solutions miss the point.

[XemaSab]

5. One might say

that fossil fuels are developed at the existing rate in order to keep prices high.

[bhikkhu]

6. Or one might also say they are a finite quantity

and the rate of extraction can't be increased at will. A sign that the rate of extraction is close to maximum is when the average cost of extraction rises steadily, while the volume produced remains the same.

In any case, the total volume in the ground certainly can't be increased at all.

[XemaSab]

7. I couched my post carefully

to allow for alternate interpretations. :D

(Meaning I done drank a few beers and couldn't figure out how to bring up peak oil.)