The American economy slowed to a crawl in the first quarter, but economists are hopeful that the setback will be temporary.
That's nice, economists are "hopeful." We seem to be moving from a "jobless recovery" (that puke-worthy oxymoron) to a full-blown recoveryless recovery.
Economists are "hopeful" because they don't expect the main drags on the economy, high gas and food prices, to last. On the other hand:
Declines in government spending will continue to drag on the economy throughout the year, as strapped state and local governments cut back and the federal government tries to cut down on nonmilitary spending.
Austerity! It's not just for teabaggers anymore.
As for -- what's that other thing people used to talk about? Oh, yeah: jobs. Krugman:
[T]he official unemployment rate has fallen. But this is the result less of job creation than of a fall in the labor force participation rate; the employment-population ratio has been flat...Whatever your take, a robust job recovery this is not. All in all, this is an economy crying out for more stimulus, wherever you can get it.
Alas, no stimulus is coming. George W. Bush signed a stimulus bill where there was 4.7 percent unemployment; now, though, the debate is over how much spending to slash.
And beneath the GDP and unemployment numbers are people, actual real live human beings who haven't worked for months or years, who see their neighborhoods crumbling and their governments gutted, who are suffering the effects of what Jesse Jackson used to call economic violence. And whose feelings (based on their life circumstances) have come clear in recent polls showing the a huge majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.
70 percent, according to this one.
Or consider this new Gallup poll. 55 percent of Americans think the country is in a recession or depression. That's ten percent higher than in February 2008.
But at least economists are hopeful.