2 ms·

We're not in a recession. Or if we are, we're not in a bad one.

• jerf 15y ago
  We are not in a recession, according to one particular definition of recession. Bandy about definitions all you like but it won't employ one more person. There is no way in which the economy is currently good, and most importantly, no way in which the predictions made about what impact our actions will have from several years ago are going to be correct retroactively. I think perhaps I should have hammered on that point a bit more. Predictions were made based on a certain model; predictions failed. Anyone with a scientific viewpoint of the world ought to be able to see what that means: Model wrong. And the model being wrong has implications, not least of which is that your confidence level in all the people confidently lecturing us about the folly of actions like cutting government spending based on this model, this model already proved wrong, should be significantly lowered. After the performance of this economic model, after the endless month after month of "unexpected" economic news, we're really supposed to just keep pissing trillions more dollars away because by golly, hopefully, someday this model will start working if we just try hard enough? I recognize that pattern; it's a failure scenario, not an immanent-triumph scenario.