Downer Forecast

Peter Orszag, President Obama's former budget director, now vice-chairman of Citibank, speaking of U.S. economic problems:

The truth is that we don’t know how to fix the US labour market – we are in uncharted territory. It would help to spend more on retraining and on infrastructure and to have a more rational immigration system. But these wouldn’t fundamentally transform the situation for the middle class ... It is not yet clear what, if anything, could.

"Uncharted territory" is a scary place to be. The Orszag quote comes from a Financial Times article by Edward Luce; the article is worth your time.