The U.S. economy appears to be like the proverbial frog in a pot of water — not knowing it's cooked as the heat continues to rise.
"Last winter, the economy was in acute crisis, with a replay of the Great Depression seeming all too possible," economist Paul Krugman wrote in his regular New York Times column.
"However, the acute crisis has given way to a much more insidious threat. Most economic forecasters now expect gross domestic product to start growing soon, if it hasn’t already. But all the signs point to a jobless recovery."
On average, forecasters surveyed by The Wall Street Journal think the unemployment rate will keep increasing into next year, and it will be as high at the end of 2010 as it is now.
"Now, it’s bad enough to be jobless for a few weeks; it’s much worse being unemployed for months or years. Yet that’s exactly what will happen to millions of Americans if the average forecast is right, which means that many of the unemployed will lose their savings, their homes and more," Krugman wrote.
Once the reality of the jobless recovery becomes apparent, it will be too late to avoid a slow-motion human and social disaster, Krugman wrote.
"If we can’t get action to head off disaster now, what would it take?" he wrote. "I don’t know the answer. And that’s why I keep thinking about boiling frogs."
It’s unlikely there is the political power in the White House now to enact any new stimulus programs as favored by Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner for economics and supporter of the Obama administration.
Last weekend, The Kansas City Star reported that President Obama's approval rating in the swing state of Ohio dropped 15 points in the last month to 49 percent. Ohio is a bellwether state for national trends.
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