Pinched by Don Peck

The subtitle is "How the great recession has narrowed our futures and what we can do about it." Peck writes for Atlantic magazine, and each chapter has the brisk pace and fact-ratio of an article on economics would in the magazine. Much of the book (almost all of it) recounts recent economic history, which is pretty depressing and mostly already top-of-mind for me. So that part was a little dull. Some interesting economics research is presented, such as stats on how people who graduate during a recession are have lower earnings for their entire careers, and the impact of long-term unemployment on willingness to hire by employers--a topic I've heard covered more on the radio lately, and which I confess I have a bias concerning. I've hired people on 4-5 occasions who seem good on paper and in interviews but who have been out of work for over a year. In each case, they did not work out for various reasons.

The "what we can do about it" chapter is OK, and presents no silver bullets for individuals or the economy. That's good, since there is not an easy answer, but I expected more in this chapter.

I got this from the library based on a recommendation from somewhere, probably the NYT book review.