Wake Up and Smell the Roses

Having been caught snoozing on camera during a number of Mr. Obama's cabinet meetings, top economic adviser Larry Summers was finally prodded into comment about the apparently failing stimulus, and the increasing public sentiment that it isn't helping.
In defense of his administrations spending and its results, Summers had some reassuring news: "The number of people searching for the term “economic depression” on Google is down to normal levels. Searches for the term were up four-fold when the recession deepened in the earlier part of the year, and the recent shift goes to show consumer confidence is higher".
As unemployment now tops 10% in 16 states, and 15% in Michigan, we can only conclude that people in those states have no access to Google or no concept of 'economic depression'. There is also the possibility that people in those states simply prefer an alternative Search Engine, like Ask Jeeves. Since these unemployment rates are the highest they've been since the early 1980s, one wonders, how would Larry Summers have qualified a successful stimulus back then? Less people buying Encyclopedias letters E and D?
When pressed for a more enumerated defense, Summers continued in a more professional fashion: “More than $43 billion in immediate tax relief has reached households and businesses. Another $64 billion has been channeled into the economy through aid to state and local governments, expansions in social programs, and spending on education, housing, and transportation projects. In addition to the amount that has already been paid out, another $120 billion in spending has been obligated by the federal government and is on track to begin working its way into the economy.” Now coupling this statement with plucky Joe Biden's recent assurances yields a whole big pile of contradiction. The top economic adviser and top Vice President really need to coordinate better.
According to Summers, people weren't worried about relief for their households or businesses, but rather about the philosophical underpinnings of 'economic depression'. The primarily contentious issue, unemployment, designates that $64 billion channeled to education and housing irrelevant, and Joe Biden told us all to avoid public transportation anyway lest we contract H1N1 and become swine. The pending, or rather, "obligated" $120 billion (what else would it be obligated for I wonder??) will apparently become autonomous and work itself into the economy as it best sees fit, which granted may be better than the Left trying to direct it. Well, at least that $120 billion is working, because Michigan sure isn't.