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Around a Corner in the Same Neighborhood

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Mon, 2009-08-10 21:17 — The Conductor
Topic: 
Economics
Places: 
U.S.A.
People: 
ODS

Barry, adding his voice to a choir, has called a bottom:

President Obama says the country has "stepped back from the brink" where the economy is concerned.

The president says the U.S. economy has turned the corner. He made the positive remarks on the day his $787 billion stimulus plan turned one hundred days old at a meeting with major donors in Beverly Hills, California.

"When you look at the economy right now, I think it's safe to say that we have stepped back from the brink, that there is some calm that didn't exist before," Obama said.

But the data have the economy moving in the same direction (shrinking), at a slower pace. We haven’t stepped back, we’re just not running for edge. That’s the calm. And Congress is still in session, urging us to pick up the pace via health entitlements and destruction of automobiles.

Russ Roberts senses hubris:

I find it fascinating that everyone assumes the economy is on its way to recovering. There are still some bad housing problems that are not resolved. Wouldn’t you think the inability to predict the current state of the world would give people pause about the ability to predict tomorrow’s?

Experts, to their credit, never tire of being wrong.