"A Sin and a Shame"

Bob Herbert proves once again why he’s arguably the only New York Times columnist worth reading, with this excellent analysis of how corporations used the recession as an excuse to lay off unnecessarily large numbers of workers and reap massive profits in the process.

Note how he tackles the same subject as Zakaria, but, unlike his reflexively pro-business counterpart, correctly diagnoses the problem – corporate greed – and calls it what it is: “a sin and a shame.” Rather than spinning the numbers into a free-market parable, Herbert addresses the ugly reality that Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, pointed out recently: “Higher corporate profits no longer lead to higher employment.”

That piece can be read here. But just another word on Herbert, who is far and away the best writer on the Times op-ed staff. While his critiques usually don’t stray too far left of the mainstream, he writes with a profound sense of common decency that is utterly lacking among fellow NYT columnists like Thomas Friedman (of “Suck on this, Iraq” infamy) and David Brooks, who memorably opined that Haitian culture, and not the island’s history of exploitation by colonial powers, was to blame for the country’s endemic poverty. Whether Herbert is lamenting the escalation in Afghanistan or defending the working class, his work marks a refreshing change from the pro-war, pro-corporate screeds that so often populate the Times. Good for him.