Pouring salt on a big wound

Among the many bad communication ideas the George W. Bush administration came up with was the famous “Mission Accomplished” speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln.
It would prove a shaker of salt in the open wound that would become the long-running conflict in Iraq.
So it was with great interest that I read the headlines on Internet news sites and in local papers declaring the “End of the Great Recession.”
Experts said this. You know, like the financial experts or economic experts. So many quarters of growth equal life is grand. In fact, according to the experts, the Great Recession wrapped up in June.  Not last June, either. June 2009.
That’s right. Unbeknownst to you, your family, your friends, even your enemies, the good times have been rolling for almost 15 months.
Which explains why President Barack Obama’s economic experts, Lawrence Summers, Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, all philosophers who’ve never experienced the private sector, left with flags flying high, I suppose.    
“Mission accomplished!”
Save a slight unemployment problem, which doesn’t factor into the measurement of the recession.
Last June the Bureau of Labor Statistics said real, non-adjusted unemployment was just under 17 percent. That was June 2010.

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