Obama 1, Phil Gramm 0
Phil Gramm has resigned as McCain's co-chair.
His crime? Gramm noted last week that we were in a "mental recession" because America was filled with "whiners". The Obama campaign jumped all over this.
The jumping is fine, but the fact is that Gramm is right.
Gramm, after all, was an economist before he was a politician. He actually knows what he's talking about, although that doesn't mean you have to agree with him.
But, as to the facts on the ground, we're not in a recession. We haven't been in a recession. In fact, you'd have to say it looks like we are skirting a recession with a not-so-soft landing.
Actual recessions are nasty things that many people seem to have forgotten. They're characterized by a lot of things, but the two big ones are pervasiveness and a diminishing economy. Sorry folks, but we don't have either one.
The economy hasn't gotten smaller. It's actually kept growing as the crowing has increased. Yes, it's weak growth, but growth it is.
And, the economy's problems aren't pervasive. Take a look around the country and what you find is that the "mortgage crisis" isn't pervasive at all. It's pervasive in California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida. The "energy crisis" bugs people, but the fact is that gas is still cheaper than bottled water. We don't complain about the "bottled water" crisis, do we?
The bottom line is that if macroeconomists are pretty sure that we're not in a recession, and non-macroeconomists are shouting them down, then perhaps "mental recession" is a better description.
