To show just how bad the job market really is, the Associated Press reported in an article titled "Rate on 30-year fixed mortgage falls to 4.71 pct.", the service sector employs 90% of our workforce. Where did the manufacturing jobs go? Can we have an independent economy without adequate manufacturing jobs? Can we ensure enough service sector jobs to employ our rapidly growing workforce?

Another article titled "Sleepwalking through America’s Unemployment Crisis" dated May 1,2011, gives us this information: The issue is the scope and composition of unemployment in America – a problem that is yet to be sufficiently recognized for its increasingly detrimental impact on the country’s social fabric, its economic potential, and its already-fragile fiscal position and debt dynamics.

The article list these facts: (1) At 8.8% almost three years after the onset of the global financial crisis, America’s unemployment rate remains stubbornly (and unusually) high (2) Rather than reflecting job creation, much of the improvement in recent months (from 9.8% in November last year) is due to workers exiting the labor force, thus driving workforce participation to a multi-year low of 64.2% (3) If part-time workers eager to work full time are included, almost one in six workers in America are either under- or unemployed (4) More than six million workers have been unemployed for more than six months, and four million for over a year (5) Unemployment among 16-19 year olds is at a staggering 24%. ( source --> http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/elerian4/English )

The job market and employment outlook doesn't look good from where I stand. The bad news continues to flow daily, and The Washington Brotherhood seems unconcerned and out-of-touch with the reality of the situation and obvious crisis. While Washington is attempting to cut cost, they fail to see the connection between our astronomical debt and our shameful unemployment crisis. If they don't connect the dots soon, it'll be too late to reverse the "borrow and spend" cycle that has amassed over $$14Billion ( and rising ) in debt.

*** This is a side note to your comment ***

Unpaid and Exploited? Examining Interns in the US Labor Market
Internships have become a principal point of entry for young people seeking white-collar careers, and it is estimated that half of all college students will do an internship before graduating. Between 1 and 2 million people overall will work as interns this year in the United States—saving firms $600 million dollars. The proliferation of the unpaid and low- paid intern workforce in cities like Washington has become so much the norm that rarely are the fairness, costs and benefits, or legality of this growing class of labor examined.
In a recently published book, Intern Nation, Ross Perlin examines these issues in the most thorough analysis of the internship industry to date—exploring whether working for free violates labor laws, the extent to which internships exacerbate existing socio-economic inequalities and under what conditions do internships provide a useful path connecting people to the labor force.

( source ---> http://www.epi.org/page/event/detail/epiforums/jvt )

It may not make sense but it sure covers a lot of health needs for those who lack the means, which is a good portion of the elderly. But we probably agree that there should be a single payer system for all citizens, funded through the government and (we may not agree on this) managed through the Medicare administration.

Look at the savings right out of the block: no insurance billing costs for providers; no insurance personnel inside hospitals and doctor's offices haggling with the run around from insurance companies all the time; limited review of doctor procedures (like Medicare); and, the big ones - elimination of the 15% insurance administrative fees to be replaced by Medicare's 3% and elimination of the 15%-20% profit that insurance soaks out of the self-employed and small businesses that can only buy from them. It would spur business and competitiveness. If you really want to make sense out of it, nationalize the useless drug companies that add zero value and slash prices. More medical schools and stop fooling ourselves that we can dictate ridiculously low doctor fees, that's insane.

Back to bankruptcy, I'm so sorry I posted this on the day of reckoning or whatever with the gone but not forgotten guy. I think bankruptcy court is an exemplar of the way our society runs - a fake representation of justice that's really just a pass through for the cash demands and citizen beat down by the financial institutions.

My point about Honda doing mass recalls and bankruptcy courts doing none was not trivial. The justice system is not about people or the application of the law. It's all about getting money from the masses and giving it to the perpetrators of the financial collapse.

It's one thing to skim EP and express myself here and there, but to provide a story with details and assurance of accuracy and impartiality is something else again. It would have to be a serious commitment, and I guess I would lose my anonymity.

Even though I steal an hour now and then for EP, I have commitments for my time through November.

I really appreciate the width and the depth of EP content. It's my global reality check for impressions I gather locally.

So, thank you.

Look to your left, first "box" in the column, scroll down and I made a point to quote the Treasury. There is supposedly a 30 day "comment period" on this proposal, but Goldman Sachs is heavily lobbying against the "Volcker rule", which is a joke! It's Swiss cheese loopholes as it is.

At least three regional presidents appear to be questioning the politically correct conventional wisdom (the 'party line'?)

In particular Dennis Lockhart is quoted: "There is virtually no net job creation resulting from new business formation in recent quarters."

Looking forward to the review.

At truthout (May 4, 2011), Professor Chomsky writes about May Day, the international assault on labor, precarity, the precariat and Brazilianization.

I've got to grab a copy of this book and review it on EP, but for now, here's the link. It's all about international transactions, tax havens and manipulation of national boundaries for the purposes of looting and stashing the cash....by corporations.