ARE YOU BETTER OFF THAN YOU WERE four years ago? No, but at this rate we’re better off than we will be four years from now. So we’ve got that, anyway.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

There was an old Soviet joke that went:

“How are you doing?”

“About average–worse off than I was last year, but better off than I’ll be a year from now. So about average.”

Yes, that’s what I was invoking. My store of those jokes may be becoming relevant again. . . .