Like many things, the answer to this questions is usually in the eye
of the beholder.  If you just got “down-sized,” lost your house when
the ARM reset, maxed your cards and finally had no choice but declare
bankruptcy, it would be hard to convince you that we’re not in a
recession.  On the other hand, if you’ve got a little extra in the
bank, can afford four-dollar-a-gallon gas and two-dollar-a-pound flour,
then you probably see the current political situation with a more
favorable view.

When people all around us pretend to know what the score of a
particular situation is (especially when there seems to be a lot of
divergent ideas,) it’s healthy to consider the paradigm of the person
proffering the position.