Obama’s Hurricane Recession

When President Obama began his message to Congress last week with details of his economic recovery plan, his words were startlingly familiar—at least to many Floridians.

“We will rebuild,” he said. “We will recover.”

That Obama-speak was also hurricane-speak. “Rebuild” and “recover” are the watchwords of devastation. Those are the phrases that people in Florida (and no doubt in other hurricane-prone parts of the country) hear after each storm blows through, blows down the power lines, blows away the roofs.

It seems a fitting parallel. As with hurricanes, so with recessions: both expose a weak infrastructure.

If there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud, it’s that eventually, we do rebuild and do recover from the hurricanes. Let’s hope the recession follows the same path.