The Long Haul

"the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion"

Please follow the link to this post's feature article from The Wall Street Journal. It is not commonly known but the real unemployment rate in the United States, when you adjust for underemployment, is running at around 16.5%. We already have unemployment running at mid-teens in the United States and we are still in the early stages of this process. I read commentators talking about "green shoots" I see none. What I do see is the United States running up astounding budget deficits and accumulating unprecedent levels of government debt.

There is plenty of ongoing talk now about downward pressure on the US dollar and questions around how long its fiscal prolifigacy can continue.

Despite all the good intentions of the Obama adminsistration and the woefful mess they inherited from the Bush adminstration I suspect they will oversee the comprehensive destruction of the US economy. Needless to say the rest of the world will follow it. This will destablise the world to such an extent that some form of serious global conflict would now appear inevitable in the next decade.

There is still that palpable sense in the community and the media that the good times will return. Unfortunately this generation has already seen their best of times.

We are a full generation away from recovery.