Remember "Jobless Recoveries"?

Remember how, in the 1980s and 1990s, we used to laugh ruefully at the nonsensical notion of a "jobless recovery"? Good times. Now that the general public's standards have been lowered by thirty-years of failed neoliberal dogma, they think we're ready for the "increasing unemployment recovery."

As Mike Whitney mentioned, this so-called "recovery" is based on a US stock-market rally that's fueled by loose money from the US Federal Reserve. Unemployment continues to rise in the United States, household wealth continues to fall with falling real-estate values, which means that household debt there will be a growing burden. Given that consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the USA's GDP, and given that much consumer spending there was based on increasing levels of debt, this "recovery" in the USA seems unsustainable, to say the least.

As for Canada's "increasing unemployment recovery," it actually appears that we might just be getting started on our recession, as the effects of the plummeting US economy start to impact our export industries. It looks like the Bank of Canada (which appeared to have been caught off-balance by the enormity of this recession)'s prediction of a slow recovery is going to have to revised.