This is a must read article from the Atlantic that goes into great detail about how DC went full force to save the banking system but has done nothing about the longterm unemployment crisis. They clearly state the biggest crisis in our country now is the longterm unemployed.

Comparing Washington’s reaction to the banking crisis and the unemployment crisis shows how and why government focuses on the rich and ignores the rest.

By DEREK THOMPSON

Link: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/05/why-washington-saved-the-economy-then-permanently-destroyed-the-labor-market/275747/

Excerpt:

In the last year, there has settled, even among the Democrats, a kind of reserved defeat that shows a stunning lack of urgency toward the crisis of long-term joblessness. From abandoning the payroll tax cut in late 2012, to quietly acceding to sequester, to going silent on unemployment, nearly all of Washington — not just the right — has essentially stopped talking about the most important economic issue of our time.

High-ranking Treasury officials officials I’ve spoken with on background couldn’t name any specific proposals they have to help the long-term unemployed. Instead, they’ve argued that general economic growth stuff, such as infrastructure spending, should be enough to put these 4 million people back to work. But the economic literature objects: Fighting vast long-term unemployment with general economic growth policies is like fighting pneumonia with Vitamin C.

So, why aren’t even Democrats scrambling to fight for the long-term unemployed?