So how is the economy? "The yearly loss in overall employment in percentage terms is the worst since 1958; the loss in private services, the worst ever. We've lost 6.5 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and the employment level is now below the peak reached in 2001. We've never seen a recession completely undo the job gains of the previous expansion. But those gains were extremely feeble. Employment growth so far this decade has averaged 0.1% a year; since the end of World War II, we've never seen a decade in which growth averaged less than 1.9%. The share of the adult population working, which had gone seriously into reverse last year, is now back to 1984 levels. The unemployment rate rose 0.1 point to 9.5%, a modest increase by recent standards, but it's now at its highest level since 1983."

RELATED: "For 'Ain't We Got Style?,' a portfolio in the August issue, photographers Michael Roberts, Norman Jean Roy, Mark Seliger, and Art Streiber teamed up with Josh Duhamel, Mila Kunis, Emile Hirsch, and other rising stars to re-enact classic Depression-era films."