QE: Landing With a Thud

The recent economic data leaves little doubt that the economic recovery in the United States is anemic at best. There was much celebration over the November jobs report. This showed a gain of 151,000 jobs. This was better than the near zero number anticipated by most economists, but should hardly provoke cries of joy. The economy must create 100,000 jobs a month just to break even with the growth of the labor force, which means that it will take more than a decade at this pace to get back the 7.5 million jobs lost to date.