The "new normal" excuse: Protecting Obama by lowering America's expectations

But was America somehow predestined for a Long Recession? No, says a new study from the Cleveland Fed; it concludes that “in general, recessions associated with financial crises are generally followed by rapid recoveries.” One notable outlier: the Obama recovery.

Ah, but America suffered both a banking crisis and a housing crisis. The study speculates that this might explain today’s tepid growth, but fails to arrive at a conclusion.

And new research from the San Francisco Fed strongly suggests the housing collapse isn’t to blame for the weak recovery. If housing were the villain, it points out, the states that didn’t suffer such big home-price declines would be doing a lot better than those that did. And they’re not.

So what’s the problem with the Obama recovery?Why is it the weakest since the Great Depression?

Maybe it’s the Obama policies, like a stunning disregard for the trillion-dollar deficits that are likely already a dead weight on growth. Or maybe it’s the Obama guarantee of more tax hikes and regulation that makes US business too worried to hire and invest.