Voices
we should also realize that this is
not the end of the challenges facing
the American economy.
You see, the May employment
report also demonstrated again
the deep-seated nature of our
unemployment crisis — from the
shockingly high and persistent
number of long-term unemployed
(stuck at 5.4 million Americans
or 43 percent of officially-recorded unemployment) to the disastrous incidence of joblessness
among the young (e.g., a 24.1 percent unemployment rate for 16-19
year olds in the labor force) and
those that did not complete their
high school education (a 14.6 percent unemployment rate relative
to 4.5 percent for those with at
least a bachelor’s degree). Here,
there is an unacceptably high
risk that unemployed citizens can
become unemployable if they remain out of work much longer.
For the economy to grow robustly
for a number of years — which is
the only way that unemployment
would come down properly, spreading poverty would be reversed, and
the country would stand a chance of
“safely de-levering” after the many
years of excessive debt creation and
credit entitlements — Washington
needs to move simultaneously and
MOHAMED A.
EL-ERIAN
HUFFINGTON
06.17.12
boldly on a number of different policy fronts. Otherwise, actions taken
in any one area would be quickly
undermined by lack of progress
elsewhere. This is especially true
for the long list of required but repeatedly delayed reforms in housing
and housing finance; federal, state
and local budgets; the labor market;
education; regulation;
lending; infrastructure
and more.
Anything
Success here speaks short of this
to much more than
would entail
whether it is Obama
something
or Romney who wins
that America
the November presiis yet to
dential elections. It
experience
also relates to whethin its proud
er our political system
history.”
as a whole can regain
over time the ability
to agree on a common economic
vision, and to pursue it with the
proper sense of shared responsibility, adequate seriousness and focused implementation.
Anything short of this would
entail something that America
is yet to experience in its proud
history: the highly unsettling
prospect that our children’s
generation may end up worse off
than ours. We should
certainly not go there.