Huffington Magazine Issue 1 | Page 30

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.