via Open Left - Front Page by David Sirota on 7/22/10
I could write a long diary about this graph, but I'm just going to say one thing: If you ever find yourself in an argument with someone insisting that Clinton-era deregulation, Bush tax cuts and both parties' ardent support for "free" trade policies is a good prescription for job growth, just send them this new Federal Reserve graph about how long the jobless are now remaining unemployed: 
Again, I could write a whole diary about this. But as they say, a picture - or in this case, a graph - is worth a thousand words. Sure, some may try to make the "welfare queen" argument that this graph allegedly reflects a welfare-state society that has encouraged more laziness. But, then, this jump in the time spent unemployed comes at precisely the time that we've been cutting welfare-state/social-safety-net spending, meaning it really reflects the historic dearth of jobs, not some new set of policies that makes it more economically comfortable to be unemployed for a longer duration.
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