I think you have that right. Politicians are the ultimate followers. I will be interesting to see what direction the electorate pulls them in November. In the mean time, flat is the new up.
“we are coming to the end of the starker losses in employment, that picture will now stabilize, but the economy as a whole will not recover vigorously, but languidly.”
Agree with the latter part, but most economists believe that 2.5% GDP growth is necessary to keep the unemployment rate from rising- Q2 was revised down to 1.6%. Not to mention that the adult population grew by 2M since last year (and of course, there are those dreadful U6 numbers...)
I posted this earlier today (explains a lot of this):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2583145/posts