Once was that 'hard times' was when, despite slack job markets, political power shifted to workers and labor and progressive ideas.
Have you noticed that the current perception, based in reality, is that the opposite is somehow occurring?
Anyway, last week's update on the coming fight over State budgets. EJ McMahon in the WSJ (link).
Of course, without some metric to suggest that public sector unions are somehow getting sweet deals, this is a bit thinly supported.