Paul Krugman, "Those Lazy Jobless": Don't Use the "O" Word!

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Those Lazy Jobless," Paul Krugman tells us that the job market has "improved lately," but has not recovered from the recession. Observing "the urge to blame the victims of a depressed economy," Krugman asks:

"Why is there so much animus against the unemployed, such a strong conviction that they’re getting away with something, at a time when they’re actually being treated with unprecedented harshness?"

Krugman proceeds to answer his own question. After considering whether it is because of "race," Krugman concludes:

"My guess, however, is that it’s mainly about the closed information loop of the modern right. In a nation where the Republican base gets what it thinks are facts from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, where the party’s elite gets what it imagines to be policy analysis from the American Enterprise Institute or the Heritage Foundation, the right lives in its own intellectual universe, aware of neither the reality of unemployment nor what life is like for the jobless."

Got it: Republicans, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation are all to blame.

Me? There is still horrifying unemployment out there - try to get a job if you're over 50 - and I don't blame the victims. However, I do question how Krugman can write an op-ed concerning unemployment without once mentioning the name of the president after almost six years in office.

Yes, I know, we're nearing the midterm elections, and when discussing America's lame economy, one must never use the "O" word.