I have a graduate-level education in social welfare, speak three languages, and cannot for the life of me comprehend what those gentlemen were trying to say.

these guys keep sayingthey are creating jobs and the press doesn't question them. but they need to create 150,000 jobs a month just to stay even...and that is about what they are averaging. so they aren't creating anything...they are simply keeping pace with demand.

WTF? The new jobs that are being "created" pay less and have fewer benefits (healthcare, pensions) than the jobs people lost. Household income for 95% of Americans is declining while ALL costs are going up - food, fuel, property taxes, healthcare, etc. Consumption goes up - because people have to buy food, gas, clothes - now they are just putting more of these expenditures on credit.

I'd say these three sum up the Bush economic philosophy quite well. It goes something like this:

PAULSON: If you're not better off, you must be an uneducated hippie slacker.

LAZEAR: Racking up massive debt = prosperity.

PORTMAN: Numbers frighten us.

Let's see, 150,000 new jobs, 3 jobs to a worker, that's 50,000 Americans who are better off. Why can't they just see it? Maybe they need special training to see it--yeah, that's it! So glad I went to Princeton so I could help the little people. Uh...Martini over here please.

Describing the positive indicators of behavior, Lazear said, "In fact, the saving rate is negative right now." OK. So people are either all choosing to spend their savings at once, or they are being forced to spend their savings due to a gap between debt and income, and this is a good sign for the economy? If people are spending their savings to either make minimum credit payments or to pay gas and electric, then why would they think that the economy is better today? Gasoline costs between 2004 and 2006 went up by 47%. (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html). Have average wages? Diesel costs, which raise the costs of everything you buy almost, have gone up by 55% in the same period. Heating oil is up 57%, and natural gas is up almost 30%. Electricity is up 10% from last year, on average across the country. (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/10ctab.html) This is why people think that the economy is in the crapper. Costs are rising all around, and, outside the top 1%, we're not seeing our personal income rise to set it off. At the other end of the scale, there are CEO's that make in an hour the average yearly salary at their company. That means that they make 2080 times what their average employee makes. That's criminal.

I'm 6 years older - a little grayer - and that freakin' moron is still in the freakin' White House - that's how much freakin' better off I am!

Is this some punishment for having a good time in the 60's?

Robert:

Yes, all us damn hippies are paying now for dreaming of a better, fairer world way back then and then forgetting about it until the trolls moved in. We have awoken in a strange bed with a scary partner and aren't sure how we got here or what we are supposed to do now.

PS: Love all the other comments so far. Why do regular folks "get it" and highly educated economists can't see that the numbers mean nothing unless you put them in a realistic context.

Lazear says, "The other thing I would say is that if we look at the behavior rather than the responses to polls, the behavior is consistent with a strong economy. We see consumption being high. In fact, the saving rate is negative right now."

Excuuuuuse me? Savings are negative because people are having to spend their savings to keep afloat! Savings at a historical per capita low, folks' debt levels at record highs. THIS is something to be pleased about?!?

I want some of whatever these guys are smoking! It would at least dull the pain when the bills come in and I'm staring at my checkbook trying to figure out what tradeoffs to make.

"But partly it is we probably haven't done as good a job communicating the strength of our economy because people are doing well."

Wait, wait. People are doing well, but they don't realize it because the administration hasn't done a good enough job of communicating this?

In other words, "What part of 'we have always been at war with Eurasia' don't you understand?"

Hey, that would make a nice bumper sticker.

Nothing they say or do surprises me anymore.

...me, or your lying eyes?

"...I think a big part of it relates to the fact that many Americans aren't feeling the benefit, because they are clearly better off as a result of a strong economic growth and job creation. They're much better off than they would be if the economy were growing slower or weren't growing. But many of the Americans aren't feeling it in terms of their own economic situation..."

_____

So, Americans are "better off" -- clearly -- but it's just not CLEAR to them, so they're not feeling better in terms of their own economic situation...

Perfectly, well, CLEAR.

WTF?

Too funny!

This is easily my favorite quote

"They're much better off than they would be if the economy were growing slower or weren't growing"

In other words The American people are doing better than they would be if they weren't doing as well.

Or The American people are lucky we haven't screwed up this economy more than we have, and believe me we can make it a LOT worse. Almost a veiled threat, really.

Sure, that's all people need. Never mind that corporations are now outsourcing degreed positions at an even faster rate than the exporting of manufacturing in recent years.

It is incredible that three lying pus bags are taken seriously. Any press that takes them seriously needs to be ridiculed. These guys must know enough to know we're up shit creek, with a dollar on the verge of death and no savings or useful items to sell.