The Media Again Turn to Surprised Economists as Experts on Job Report

It was easy to see that the economy was not growing rapidly long before Friday's jobs reports. The economy grew at just a 0.4 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter. While this weakness was largely attributable to unusual factors, even averaging in the prior quarter the economy only grew at a 1.7 percent rate in the second half of 2012.

It's not clear what someone would have had to have been smoking to expect a marked upturn from this pace. Did they think the ending of the payroll tax cut...