The Dow climbed back to 10,000 but there is no bull market for American jobs, which continue to be shed at a rate of about a quarter-million every month. The national unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent and large pockets of America are suffering even more, with 14 states reporting unemployment rates higher than 10 percent.

Weakness in the job market has the most extreme impact on those at the margins.  According to one report, the unemployment rate among black male teenagers is 50.4 percent. That is unacceptable.

Although it's politically unpopular to do a new stimulus, some influential economists believe that economic conditions are such that doing nothing at all could impede the budding recovery just as the effects of...