An Unimpeachable Source
The economy will pick back up in the second half — honest:
“We can put our finger on the problems, and they’re temporary, I think,” said Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com. “Oil prices were a blow. You can see that in the consumer spending numbers in Q1, and prices are coming back down.”
Here’s a nice bit from Zandi’s Wikipedia bio:
Zandi’s analysis of the impact of an economic stimulus package on the United States economy was cited by Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein in their report on President Barack Obama’s proposed American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.[4] Zandi uses old-style Keynesian models in the spirit of Nobel Prize winner Lawrence Klein. The utility of such models to gauge the impact of fiscal stimulus has been questioned by Harvard economist Robert J. Barro.
Sigh.
Why is it that Keynesian Economists are never referred to by their proper title. That would be “Dangerous Morons” of course.
I’ve been reading Fault Lines by Raghuram Rajan. It should be required reading for anyone who comes with 500 miles of D.C.
“Zandi’s analysis …” Ergo, GDP growth slows “unexpectedly”, unemployment increases “unexpectedly”, home sales decrease “unexpectedly”, … Ergo, Pro-Obama Media Always Shocked by Bad Economic News.
And oil prices are expected to go down, because, um, why, exactly? Dear Liar’s going to open Alaska, the California coast, and the Gulf to oil exploration/exploitation?