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INDEED: The sad truth is that the economy is still extremely ill. The recovery we were all waiti?

By Glenn Reynolds

INDEED:

The sad truth is that the economy is still extremely ill. The recovery we were all waiting for has not started in any meaningful way.

True, by many metrics, the economy has stopped falling drastically, but we are still in a painful recession, large by postwar standards. The bank crises seem to have abated for now and Wall Street is paying itself fantastically well again, thank heavens, after being rescued with taxpayer money. But housing is still extremely weak, profits are miserable and, most important, far too many Americans are unemployed ? roughly 9.5 percent, by the latest data.

Just as basic, far too many Americans are living in fear.

What is President Obama doing about it? Perhaps too much. And, possibly, his efforts are too diffuse. When I think about the economy I think about a plump man who has just been hit by a truck while crossing a street and is in severely critical condition with internal bleeding. Instead of just stabilizing his hemorrhaging, the doctor decides that while the patient is unconscious, he might as well also do a face lift, some coronary bypasses and a stomach-stapling to keep him from gaining weight while he is recovering (if he does recover). After all, a crisis is not to be wasted. . . . Maybe we should just concentrate on ending the recession and talk about the other plans later. Let?s consider just how much uncertainty is good for the economy.

Read the whole thing.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on July 13, 2009 (boomark / email).