Self-congratulation by the US authorities that they have this time avoided a repeat of the 1930s is premature.

januari 10, 2011

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

9 jan 2011:

The US is drifting from a financial crisis to a deeper and more insidious social crisis.

Self-congratulation by the US authorities that they have this time avoided a repeat of the 1930s is premature.

The numbers of people on food stamps have reached 43.2m, an all time-high of 14pc of the population. Recipients receive debit cards – not stamps -- currently worth about $140 a month under President Obama’s stimulus package.

Jobs data released on Friday was again shocking. The only the reason that headline unemployment fell from 9.7pc to 9.4pc was that so many people dropped out of the system altogether.

The long-term unemployed (more than six months) have reached 42pc of the total, twice the peak of the early 1990s. Nothing like this has been seen since the World War Two.

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