Earlier this month Professor Robert Reich published an article entitled, “The Jobs Report, and Why the Recovery Has Stalled”.

Professor Reich is quite knowledgeable, to be sure, but he’s ‘way off base when he says “the recovery has stalled”. There is no recovery.

“We are in the most anemic recovery in modern history, yet our political leaders in Washington aren’t doing squat about it. In fact – the government is heading in exactly the wrong direction: raising taxes on the middle class, and cutting spending …

“The share of people of working age who are either working or looking for jobs remains dismal – close to a 30-year low. (Yes, older boomers are retiring, but the major cause for this near-record low is simply the lack of jobs.)

“And the long-term unemployed, about 40 percent of all jobless workers, remain trapped. Most have few if any job prospects, and their unemployment benefits have run out, or will run out shortly …

“It would be one thing if we didn’t know what to do about all this. But we do know. It’s not rocket science. The only reason for employers to hire more workers is if they have more customers. But American employers have not had enough customers to justify much new hiring.

“There are essentially two sources of customers: individual consumers, and the government. (Forget exports for now; Europe is contracting, Japan is a basket case, China is slowing, and the rest of the world is in economic limbo.) American consumers – whose purchases constitute about 70 percent of all economic activity – still can’t buy much, and their purchasing power is declining …

“And now their Social Security taxes have increased, leaving the typical worker with about $ 1,000 less this year than last …

“The only people doing well are at the top – but they save a large part of what they earn instead of spending it …

“So if we can’t rely on consumers to stroke the economy, what about government? No chance. Government spending is dropping, too. Government spending has declined in nine of the last ten quarters, but it took a precipitous drop in the last quarter.

“What’s ahead? More of the same. So what possible reason do we have to suspect the recovery will pick up speed? None.

[More accurately, Professor, what possible reason do we have to suspect that there has been a recovery at all?]