Are we in a recession? Could it be a depression? A crash? Does the economy have a hope of recovery without help? The Bush administration doesn’t want to call the EMTs just yet, they prefer to tone down the rhetoric:

HELP! I’ve fallen and
I can’t improve the momentum of my recovery?

HELP! I’ve fallen and
my confidence about getting up needs a boost?

HELP! I’ve fallen and
I’m double-dipping on floor time?

HELP! I’ve fallen and
I’m despairing that my getting-up ability isn’t what it was?

HELP! I’ve fallen and
everyone wants to pretend I can get up! Or that I haven’t fallen, or that it was only a shallow fall.

A jobless recovery:
Telling a patient he’s already recovering to induce him to recover. Or pretending there’s an economic recovery to boost consumer confidence and generate an actual recovery.

I heard a spokesman say today that this recession has been the shortest in human history. In its first year the hundred year war was short.