New York: Federal Reserve

Nothing like a Simpsons' quote* to enliven the train wreck that is the Democratic leadership. I just passed along how the Democrats are trying to grab full control over our economic system (forget about health care's 17%!) by putting the government in charge of basically everything about companies - what they can borrow, what they can sell, what they can lend, what they can pay, what they can do, who they can talk to, what they can have for lunch, what color shirts they can wear...

The important takeaway from that story is that they basically want to take the worst parts of the Fannie/Freddie situation, extend them to the rest of the economy, and make them permanent.

As we said as far back as February, it was likely the U.S. economy would grow by the third quarter of this year. Well, it did — and the 3.5% rebound was better than expected...

They include presidential adviser Larry Summers, who said last week that "thanks largely to the Recovery Act, we have walked a substantial distance back from the economic abyss and are on the path toward economic recovery."

We have, in truth, stepped back from the abyss. But sorry, Dr. Summers, it was no thanks to government.

The strongest parts of the third-quarter GDP report came from personal consumption (up at an annual rate of 3.

IBD explains reality re: recovery:
As we noted several times earlier this year, it looks like the third quarter will see a turnaround in the economy, with GDP expanding 0% to 3.5% for the summer period...

To start, the Federal Reserve's own favorite gauge of future growth, the yield curve, shows virtually no chance that the economy will still be in a recession by year-end — and a more than 90% chance the downturn will end this summer.

The plain fact is, a recovery was baked in the cake as 2009 began. The main reason was the Fed went pedal to the metal on money creation in December, slashing its benchmark fed funds rate to zero.