Josh posted reader LG's comments about this earlier today, and I agree.

Can the MSM, like CNN in this case, talking about 2008's job losses being the worst since 1945 put the job-loss figures into some historical context? The 1945 population was about half of today. In fact, it's not as bad as 1982, even.

See my blog link for more about this vs. 1982, if you're under 40, and for concerns about the "worst since Depression" line becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now, it is true, as Kevin Phillips has so well noted, that unemployment calculation methodology has been, to be blunt, "fudged" since 1982. That said, some of the fudging had been done before then, as Phillips has also written.

That said, as I note, there's a full percentage point difference between 2008 job losses and 1982. Even with allowance for fudging, I don't think you can say problems now are significantly worse than they were then.

We now have more evidence that 1982 was worse. I know that under-35s, and perhaps to some degree, even those in the 35-39 range don't grasp this, or else aren't old enough to remember, it, but 1980-82 was a real recession, not like the Poppy Bush recession that got Clinton elected, or the Clinton/Shrub Bush recession.