While working on his new book, The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker, Steven Greenhouse interviewed hundreds of workers across America.

Yesterday at TPMCafe, he gave us a taste. At the plastic factory where Kathy Saumier worked in upstate New York four of the 190 employees had fingers amputated over a 13-month period. "I got tired of being treated like dirt," she said.

Today he digs into the plight of the young college graduate-- A warning: The up-escalator may be broken.