Is high, long-term unemployment the new normal in the United States?
James Surowiecki discusses the effects of high unemployment on workers as well as on the economy as a whole, and the resistance within policymaking circles to do anything about it. Here’s his conclusion:
Five years ago, an unemployment rate of seven and a half per cent would have seemed outrageous, but it’s possible that five years from now it will seem not so bad. A long-term crisis, after a certain point, no longer seems like a crisis. It seems like the way things are.
