A joint IMF-ILO report said 30m jobs had been lost since the crisis, three quarters in richer economies. Global unemployment has reached 210m. "The Great Recession has left gaping wounds. High and long-lasting unemployment represents a risk to the stability of existing democracies," it said.
The study cited evidence that victims of recession in their early twenties suffer lifetime damage and lose faith in public institutions. A new twist is an apparent decline in the "employment intensity of growth" as rebounding output requires fewer extra workers. As such, it may be hard to re-absorb those laid off even if recovery gathers pace. The world must create 45m jobs a year for the next decade just to tread water.
Today's quote comes from an article written by the best journalist on the planet, Ambrose-Evans Pritchard. While I do not welcome prolonged employment mediocrity, I do welcome the skepticism of our government overlords, the world over. Our US system of government was born out of skepticism and our overall distrust of the officials who had been entrusted to treat us as ends in ourselves. Today, that skepticism is returning and people have to look into the hearts and minds of those in power and see where things are headed.
Hopefully, the keepers of the US Republic have been awakened enough to change our course towards moderation and balanced budgets and away from irrational exuberance. Obama was correct in running on change, because change we have got, and change will continue to come.
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