Unhappy new year

Ahhh, it's a new year and a new decade and things feel wonderful. That sense of new possibilities and opportunities permeating the air. What makes it great is... oh, what's that? Every economist in America, did you have something to add?

Speaking at American Economic Association's mammoth yearly gathering, experts from a range of political leanings were in surprising agreement when it came to the chances for a robust and sustained expansion:

They are slim.

Many predicted U.S. gross domestic product would expand less than 2 percent per year over the next 10 years. That stands in sharp contrast to the immediate aftermath of other steep economic downturns, which have usually elicited a growth surge in their wake.

Well fuck you too.

Sure the article quotes Martin Feldstein, Joseph Stiglitz, and Kenneth Rogoff, but who are they any way? Other than the former head of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Nobel laureate, and a former IMF economist/Fed Board member respectively? Just a bunch of gainsayers who can't let us get four days into a new year and decade without yelling about how shitty it's going to be, just because American's primary source of wealth, their homes, has been severely weakened, consumer debt is staggeringly high, there's nothing in place to replace the housing boom and consumer spending that previously drove growth, the banks are reliant on Fed funding and Treasury backing, and finance companies are artificially padding their bottom lines with zero cost government loans.

But what about America's undying sense of optimism, freedom, and, uh... wishing none of this had happened? Apparently none of these things count.

Even the relentlessly cheery, gumdrops and sunshine musings of the affable optimist Paul Krugman are filled with ill omens he's reading after consulting the bones and the increased swelling he's feeling in his pessimism gland. He says he's getting that 1937 feeling, where government and the Fed declared the Great Depression fixed and all over, cut spending, tightened monetary policy... and dove back into a depression. He sees the same signs and notes the fact that the Fed is already taking steps to tighten monetary policy.

So... happy new year. I know you were hoping for some fresh start, but the best and brightest economists in the country say no. Don't get mad at me. I wanted you to have a good economy, but they said no. Something about "the facts saying otherwise". The bright side? Well... I guess if you were an economist you could make a lot of money making economic predictions. For the rest of us though, it looks like a meandering decade of stagnant growth followed by a slow descent into the long awaited hobo economy. Sorry. I was going to let you bask in the optimism of a new year for a few more days, but the American Economic Association wanted to do it their way. I guess it's for the best.