By everywhere, I mean, everywhere.
The Financial press is circulating the latest Labor Department report that does not seasonally adjust employment rates, and it's a doozy. As fxstreet(via Dow Jones Newswires) reports
The unemployment rate climbed in all of the nation's biggest urban areas during May.
That's not hyperbole, by the way.
The Labor Department on Tuesday said jobless rates rose in all 372 metropolitan areas from a year earlier.
That's 372 areas suffering a wage crisis, 0 areas not suffering, for those who like keeping score.
And, unfortunately, this isn't a fluke.
"For the fifth consecutive month, all 372 metropolitan areas had over-the-year unemployment rate increases," the Labor report said.
This diary is short and sweet. I think one of the big problems in our policy responses to our economic situation of the past couple years is that our dialogue, our public discourse, our framing, is too controlled by those whose interests really stop at the problems of a few large financial industry firms.
While important, our fundamental problems are not a liquidity crisis or a credit crunch. Too big to fail describes a political calculus, not an economic one.
What we face is a wage crisis, a jobs crunch, a labor market that is too big to fail. Data isn't sufficient to craft good policy, but being aware, keeping the focus on workers, is certainly an important component. Every politician in the country should have to answer for a statistic so amazing, that unemployment is worse than a year ago in every single metro area the Labor Department tracks.
That should be a scandal. Perhaps eventually, with enough attention, we can make it one. After all, lots of smart people have lots of great solutions. We just need to get our leaders to listen to them for a change.