Don't Get Cocky

Robert Reich - we're not at the beginning of the end, or even, the end of the beginning. Money quotes:

All of these pieces of upbeat news are connected by one fact: the flood of money the Fed has been releasing into the economy. Of course mortgage rates are declining, mortgage orginations are surging, and people and companies are borrowing more. So much money is sloshing around the economy that its price is bound to drop. And cheap money is bound to induce some borrowing. The real question is whether this means an economic turnaround. The answer is it doesn't.

And here:

I admire cockeyed optimism, and I understand why Wall Street and its spokespeople want to see a return of the bull market. Hell, everyone with a stock portfolio wants to see it grow again. But wishing for something is different from getting it. And cockeyed optimism can wreak enormous damage on an economy. Haven't we already learned this?

I love American optimism. Which is why it offends me so much when these credit pushers manipulate it for short term gain and long term poverty. We'll get out of this recession by making shit people need rather than trying to game popular psychology into the "perception" we're out of recession/debt.