Read Robert Reich!

I know that I put Robert Reich's blog on my list, but I feel the need to make a specific pitch for the three readers of my blog to have a look. So far as I can tell, the man gets it profoundly right. And it's not just because I find his voice strangely soothing.

We are entering a rather disturbing phase in the history of American capitalism. A New York Times article on Monday observes that the disturbing 9.5% official unemployment rate is actually closer to 20% when one takes into account -- well, UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE.

I've read the Grapes of Wrath. I'm increasingly discomforted that Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon seemingly haven't.

Just a little reality check, c. 1932:

# of unemployed: 13,000,000

% Unemployment: 23.6%-24.1%

On Hoovervilles: "Below Riverside Drive in New York City, an encampment of squatters lined the shore of the Hudson from 72nd St. to 110th St. In Brooklyn's Red Hook section, jobless men bivouacked in the city dump in shed made of junked Fords and old barrels." William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal

Call me scared.