You Say Potato, I Say Potato

Drum talks about the recession doldrums.

There are only a few ways for consumers to spend more money, and none of them are anywhere on the horizon. Wages aren't going up, employment isn't going up, the glory days of credit card debt and home equity loans are over, and no one is drawing down their savings to buy bedroom sets these days. Just the opposite, in fact.

So with consumers actively reducing their consumption in order to pay off debt, what's going to keep this recovery going? A few hundred billion dollars in stimulus money? Not likely. Unfortunately, with no second stimulus likely to get serious consideration, we're stuck in the doldrums until deleveraging has run its course. That's probably going to take another couple of years.

He and the WSJ call this recession doldrums. I say potato. I call this a return to realism and not spending money like a drunken sailor coming into port for the night. But that's just me.