A "malaise" by any other name

Robert Reich, who was Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, discounts the possibility of a double-dip recession. But he doesn't rule it out.

He characterizes the administration's response to the economic crisis as "paralyzed."

Laboring under the delusion common to the Left that the WPA and other New Deal programs materially helped the nation escape the Great Depression, Reich says that "ordinarily" such artificial, economically sterile make-work programs would be the way for Obama to go.  As things fall out, he explains, this isn't practical.

After all, there's a presidential election next year.

Reich's one constructive suggestion- which for some reason he also sees as impractical in view of the upcoming election- is a one-time deal making the first $20,000 in income next year tax-free for Americans. It's a shockingly conservative idea, coming from Secretary Reich. Heavens. Let the taxpayers spend their own money? What will the Europeans say, let alone the New York Times?

But the Obama administration, he thinks, is hiding its head in the sand, unwilling to risk addressing the stalled recovery in terms reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's talk of  "malaise" in the presidential cycle which ended with his being ousted from office. So in essence, Professor Reich throws up his hands. It appears that we will get little more practical help from Reich than from Mr. Obama- or any other Democrat.

Meanwhile, Mark Riddle, a fund manager at M&G Investments in London, describes May as a "horror show" for the American economy.

Anthony Burgess fans may recall that in the "Nadsat" teenspeak of  his dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange, "horrorshow" (from the Russian khorosho, meaning "well" or "good") is a positive adjective.  Given the kind of objectivity generally associated with MSNBC, I'm surprised that the site didn't try to spin Riddle's remark as optimism.

HT: Drudge