Hold the champagne.

Happy days aren't here again

By: Michael Barone
November 1, 2009

The recession is over, we are told. The Commerce Department announced Thursday that the economy grew in the third quarter of 2009 by 3.5 percent. Great, huh?

Maybe not. About half that growth came from the Cash for Clunkers program, which transferred into the third quarter auto sales that would have occurred later. The expiring tax credit of $8,000 for first-time homebuyers stimulated some house sales. Most of the effect of the $787 billion stimulus package, we are told by the Obama White House, has already been felt.

"There were few signs in the new data," writes The Washington Post's Neil Irwin, "that the private sector will be able to sustain that growth once the government pulls back." Or as Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal, "No one has any faith in these numbers." Continue reading this article.