If Larry Summers Says the Recession is Over, Then It Must Be True

Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers said on ABC News's This Week with George Stephanopoulos that "Today, everybody agrees that the recession is over."

Wait, what? "The recession is over"?

Stephanopoulos had asked Summers, who is President Obama's top economic adviser, whether his views were in line with those of some private economists, who predict a likely increase in unemployment over the next couple of months despite the unemployment drop we experienced in November.

Summers basically said that he thinks the debate should not be about whether the economy is still in a recession (it's not), but how fast it is growing: "The question is what the pace of the expansion is going to be."

He added that this expansion happens in stages.

"First, GDP goes up. That's happened," he said. "Then hours that are worked by workers who already have jobs go up. That's starting to happen... Then unemployment starts to come down."

Summers also said that he agrees with the predictions of most professional forecasters, who say the economy will once again experience job growth by spring.

"We're in a very special kind of economic situation," he said, "and, frankly, jobs have to be the top priority."

Well, we sure hope you're right, Larry. Because some of us would love to have a job when we graduate.