Obama Adviser Declares Victory: Fewer People Searching For “Economic Depression” On Google

When not napping through economic policy meetings at the White House, one thing Obama administration economist Larry Summers likes to keep track of is Google search trends. Apparently searches for “economic depression” in particular.
And he’s noted that, of late, searches for that term have gone down. And, uh, that’s a victory for the “stimulus” spending spree or something.

Of all the statistics pouring into the White House every day, top economic adviser Larry Summers highlighted one Friday to make his case that the economic free-fall has ended.
The number of people searching for the term “economic depression” on Google is down to normal levels, Summers said.
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, Summers told the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Maybe people aren’t search for that term any more because they’re no longer worried about hard economic times coming but instead are resigned to the fact that hard economic times are upon them.
With the paucity of positive economic news available right now I’m not surprised that the Obama administration is resorting to absurd little factual nuggets like this one.