The latest numbers are out on the economy, and things have been worse than we thought:

GDP revised lower, manufacturing orders fall

The GDP was revised from an anemic 1.7% growth rate down to 1.3% growth through Q2 of this year (the half-way point).  That officially puts us .5% behind Canada for the same period.  Other great news included that the demand for long-term durable goods decreased 13% in August, about 10% worse than we had thought….

But who cares? Terrible economic news to Americans these days is like telling someone in Chicago that a kid got shot on the south side. People shrug and mutter a lackluster “bummer”, but no one seems to have an emotional response to bad news anymore.

Perhaps even more disturbing, it seems as if the worse things get economically, the higher Obama’s ratings go. People are starting to believe that being trapped in a government-induced recession is the new normal.  There is a growing perception that the Obama administration masters are controlling our lives for the better and we should be content with the impossible hoops we have to jump through to get a small business loan now or that chasing investment capital off-shore is better for us… It can only be described as national Stockholm Syndrome. The problem with Stockholm Syndrome is that the victim no longer wants the cure…