An enlightening, maddening, thoughtful piece in today's Financial Times about why there is so much angst in America's Middle Class.

The reasons given are not definitive. And there appears to be an overemphasis on what government should be doing to address the problem - or at least, it is inferred that government should be doing more.

Some of this piece might be shocking to those who haven't been following the long, slow, sad slide of the Middle Class and with it, America's famed upward mobility and optimism about the future. Stats might not tell the entire truth but in this case, they get the point across rather clearly.

What the article makes clear is that it is not Bush's fault that incomes have stagnated, or that globalization and technology have eliminated millions of jobs. What makes this piece ring true is that no one can really seem to put their finger on what to do about this state of affairs that sees people whose parents were living more comfortably with more security than they are. Where did that life go? Can we get it back?

It's a long article so I won't try and excerpt something. But I urge you to read it in its entirety.