Situation vacant

It must be cold comfort to the 14.5 million unemployed Americans to hear that unemployment is a “lagging indicator” and that the job market should pick up sometime after the economy picks up.  Especially when the signals for the economy itself are still mixed.  The most frightening news is that there are currently six unemployed job seekers for every vacant position out there.  And even that’s counting only the “officially” unemployed and not the underemployed or the jobless people who’ve given up looking.  The NYT has the story here.

The Kinks have the cautionary don’t-quit-your-old-job-until-you’ve-found-a-new-one tale here:

The Devil’s Dictionary — Financial Edition

Great stuff from Matthew Rose in the WSJ.

Ambrose Bierce would surely approve.

(Hat tip: Anina Bennett, on Facebook.)

The problem with banker pay

Krugman’s latest column is a gem.  The problem, he says, is not the level of financial-industry pay but its asymmetry — lavish rewards for short-term profits, no responsibility for long-term losses or systemic damage — and the perverse incentives that result.  Once again, it’s a case of “privatize the profits, socialize the losses.”

Judging from the quote from President Obama, it doesn’t look like this administration is going to do anything about it, though.  Sigh.