Remember the “jobless recovery” of the Obama years?
Part of the problem was that President Obama kept extending unemployment benefits, which subsidized joblessness, as even 
Paul Krugman and Larry Summers had warned.
The good news was that Congress eventually said no in 2014 (actually one of the three best things to happen that year).
After that happened, the labor market improved.
But politicians apparently didn’t learn anything. As part of emergency coronavirus legislation, they turbo-charged unemployment benefits.
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial from yesterday has a good summary.
Much of the harm from the coronavirus is unavoidable, but it would be nice if politicians didn’t compound the damage by ignoring the laws of economics. The worst blunder so far on that score is the $600 increase in federal jobless benefits…
Why would anyone take a pay cut to go back to work? …Employees say they’ll…
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Karl Dickey 