Mort has an editorial in the Wall Street Journal today . . .

<<Who could blame people for holding back when we see roughly 50 million Americans on one or more taxpayer-supported programs, be it food stamps or unemployment benefits? This downturn may not have the 1930s feel of despair, but in large part that is because, as the economist David Rosenberg of the wealth-management firm Gluskin Sheff put it, "The modern day soup line is a check in the mail."

And government figures don't take into account the two million plus discouraged workers who've dropped out of the labor force over the past year and a half and are still unemployed. If counted, the jobless rate would have been 11.5% in February.

Government programs may have provided an early, if minor, lift to the economy, but clearly they have not sustained it. One possible engine of recovery may be the improving profitability of corporate America, if the cash finds its way into increased capital spending and employment. But with companies uncertain about the future, that's not happening.

Like it or not, our increasingly anemic recovery may yet require the jolt of a substantial new stimulus. For any such defibrillation shock to be effective—or politically feasible—it must not spook the bond market. That means the patient must be assured of longer-term reductions in the major expenditure programs of the national government. Until we have a credible and convincing plan, it seems we'll have an economy that is neither certifiably dead nor robustly alive.>>

Link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870338670457618...