Barry Ritholtz responds to USA Today’s report that says economists are expecting steady growth in the GDP. The paper surveyed 46 economists, and four out of five “say the stock market rally since March is heralding a sustainable recovery.” Ritholtz, though, finds it hard to believe “the same people who missed the worst oncoming recession in 80 years, the credit collapse (worst in US), and the market crash…” OK, point taken. But, Ritholtz doesn’t indicate why he disagrees so staunchly. Even though Ritholtz does believe that the rally is slowing down, there doesn’t seem to be a considerable difference between “sustainable recovery” and the “minor reversal” that Ritholtz foresaw.

First thing’s first: Brad DeLong shares some pretty pictures. Later, he rips into Allan Meltzer, calling him a “shameless partisan hack.” Meltzer released a memo in which he argues that the idea of “saving jobs” is an unmeasurable metric created by the Obama administration to make people believe that the stimulus package is working. To refute DeLong conjures Milton Friedman’s counterfactual analysis, in which he says that an extra $1 billion of open market operations would have stopped the Great Depression. Just as Friedman asked, “What if we had acted differently?” in 1931, the Obama administration asked the same question and is saying that without the stimulus, more jobs may have been lost. Ergo, “jobs saved.” DeLong believes that Meltzer’s motivations are purely political. He ponders, “So why is Allan Meltzer doing this—saying that Milton Friedman talked nonsense in The Great Contraction?” He answers his own question: “Because it is to the temporary tactical advantage of the Republican Party for him to do so … Exercise some moral responsibility, Allan.”

T-minus two days until Felix Salmon gets back from Spain and resumes blogging. We continue to await his return.

No, Paul Krugman; Veterans Day is next week. Where are the Monday posts?