Economic recovery? Maybe for Chase. But with an official unemployment rate now at 10.2%, the highest in more than a quarter of a century, it is hard to make the case that there is a recovery going on for the average American.

And, keep in mind, that 10.2% figure does not include those no longer looking for work or those who are working part time but would prefer to work full time.  When you add these folks into the mix, the rate soars beyond 17%!

Administration officials like to point to the fact that the pace of job firings has declined in recent months.

But companies are still firing people and, more to the point, few are hiring back.

Was this the “hope” that so many of Barack Obama’s most ardent and early supporters were thinking about?

Rightly or wrongly, the impression is that Obama rushed to save the banks and financial institutions that were deemed “too big to fail,” but failed to move with the same sense of urgency when it came time to bail out those too small to survive!

Signing unemployment benefit extensions is good….but being tougher on banks that received taxpayer bailout money, by virtually forcing them to start lending out money again, would be a whole lot better!

One study I just saw said that it can take up to five years after a major recession for the job market to return to whatever is considered normal.

Five years!!  Hate to see what happens in this country if that turns out to be true this time around.

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