Debt Watch

From Andrew Sullivan:

Economic Growth is up…

Chart from Michael Yglesias via Andrew Sullivan:

But:

One of the things that makes American politics weird is that nobody in the administration is really supposed to talk about the fact that this is much more up to Ben Bernanke than it is up to Barack Obama.

The recovery, such as it is,  seems to be spending on durable goods, driven (pun intended) primarily by the Cash for Clunkers Program.  That, as I recall, was an Administration program…  However spending is down in the September figures, so the unemployment  numbers probably won’t improve anytime soon.

In fairness, the Administration’s announcement of the GDP numbers was measured and cautious.

Graph: Health Care Costs versus Wages

Courtesy of Ezra Klein; By way of Andrew Sullivan: