We're Right Back to Where We Started

Not that the economy was bouncing back in any meaningful way for anyone not a billionaire, but the jobs report shows the economy once against stuck in the ditch.

Obama needs to push back loudly and clearly, saying he won’t support additional spending cuts until the economy is showing clear signs of improvement.

But widening inequality is the underlying culprit here. As long as almost all the gains from economic growth continue to go to the top, the vast middle class doesn’t have the purchasing power to boost the economy on its own. And rich Americans spend a much smaller portion of their incomes than does the vast middle class. Their marginal satisfaction from additional spending falls off. The second yacht isn’t nearly as much fun as the first.

Get it? We’ve still got a terrible cyclical problem – we can’t get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession.

The one percent, and especially the very top of that percentage, needs to be paying its fair share of taxes. The government needs to be involved in job creation. Nobody will spend money and jumpstart this economy if there is no money to spend.

It's a demand problem.