Ahead of the release of what many believe will be favorable unemployment figures on Friday, Dorothy Wickenden hosts John Cassidy and James Surowiecki on this week’s Political Scene podcast to discuss the still-uneven economic recovery.
“This actually has been a pretty good economy—an O.K. economy—for people who have jobs,” Surowiecki says. “The real problem has been that if you don’t have a job, it’s been very, very hard to get one.… People are really still way too concerned about things like inflation and the budget deficit and the like, and nowhere near concerned enough about the fact that we still have close to eight per cent unemployment.” One person who is focussed on joblessness, Cassidy points out, is Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. “Most people don’t realize this, but the Fed is explicitly committed to reducing the unemployment rate to at least 6.5 per cent.” What we need, Surowiecki says, is “for the Fed to keep its foot on the gas pedal.”
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