This doesn't surprise me. Call me an ol' cynic, but I've been wondering if businesses have been holding back on hiring until after the midterm elections so that they could get the legislators they feel they deserve ...

Global corporations know no borders, have no loyalties but the almighty dollar. They buy politicians out of petty cash, and quiet our unease with Dancing With the Stars.

Patriots are suckers and fools and we are economic serfs. Ask Bernie Sanders.

Oh, they'll screw it up all right - DELIBERATELY!

They can't allow the economy to improve too much because they don't want Obama to get any credit, and maybe create a coat-tail effect that will hurt the RepubliConservatives efforts to gain control of the Executive and both houses of Congress in 2012.
And if they do win, since they're completely incomepetent when it comes to the economy (among a host of other things), it'll be a long, long time before the economy recovers. And that's if it CAN recover with a few more years RepubliConfederats at the helm.
Doom, despair, and agony on me...

But, have a Very Merry ChistmaHanukaKwanza Everyone!!! In other words, HAPPY HOLIDAYSY!!!

Hmmm....if the economy is in substantial recovery leading into the 2012 elections, will the people who voted to overturn the democratic majority in 2010 apply those same analytical skills to give the credit to 1 1/2 years of a Republican- controlled congress?

On some democratic web sites I find there is a lot of whining about how they did not get everything they wanted from this administration. I have to wonder - how hard did they fight to ensure that democrats maintained a majority? (I am not talking about this site, which I find to be very positive)
My other thought was that if they whined like this before the mid terms they probably ensured that some one would hear them and not bother to vote for dems - so they really hurt themselves.

It should go without saying that if the incoming crew of congressional GOP ignoramuses doesn't fuck up a fragile economic recovery with their teabaggy stupidity, then they will claim credit for it (b/c they got Obama to agree to the tax cuts for their obscenely rich benefactors). This is largely the same bunch that think that Saint Ronnie Raygun was responsible for the booming economy during the late 1990s after all.

What's sad is that there will be a sizeable portion of the population who will BELIEVE them -- along with a servile press to flatter them.

Follow the money!

Until MSM begins to run with the reality based meme,

Republicans advocate economic policies detrimental to our national economy because they want to see President Obama fail, force him to be a one termer, and then regain power under the guise that the economy has been in the tank under President Obama, while they actually have been the Party saying no all this time,

maybe I'd become a bit more optimistic regarding the integrity of the press, the truthfulness of evaluating Reaganomics and bushonomics, and the general trend of our economy as we enter 2011. -Kevo

The situation in Europe remains precarious,[...] -- Steve Benen

When Poland first joined EU, it was whine, whine and bitch all the way about having to wait before being allowed to also join the Euro-zone. Now, with the examples of Greece and Spain -- which are having their troubles aggravated by the common currency -- there's almost dancing in the street. Indeed, the general tenor, among the economists and the politicians there is "let's not rush it, let's not re-apply quite yet". They must be reading Krugman :)

BTW. So much depends on perspective. In Poland, everyone's rather pleased that the unemployment is in the 8-9% range. Of course, their point of comparison is the late nineties/early zeros, when it was 12-15%