Jane Clayson: "As Congress works on a pared-back jobs bill, a bracing new study shows that unemployment isn't hitting all Americans equally. Far from it.

The country's top income brackets are barely touched by joblessness, while low-income groups face staggering unemployment -- levels over 30 percent. Those are Great Depression numbers, or worse.

What this means for American society -- not just inequality but long-term economic stability -- is an urgent question. Our guests today have the numbers, and a sobering analysis."

THE ECONOMIC crisis began with a collapse in the housing market and probably will not end before the housing market enjoys a real recovery. While home prices are no longer plummeting, many potential homebuyers are waiting to see whether this is a safe time to enter the market. Sales of previously occupied homes rose in 2009 for the first time in four years, but sales could fall again with the end of the extended home buyer tax credit in the spring.

In repairing the economy, President Obama and Congress face a dilemma. More economic stimulus is needed, yet there is little appetite for expensive new government programs with the federal deficit running more than a trillion dollars. What we need is a new policy, one that could garner bipartisan support, would likely cost the government little or nothing, but should spur many credit-worthy homebuyers to buy now and help rejuvenate the economy.

Here is one idea worth trying. The US Treasury in conjunction with the Department of Housing and Urban Development should put in place for the next 18 months a home price insurance program providing a form of catastrophic loss protection for homebuyers taking a chance on the current housing market.