Steve Rattner's Incredibly Low Expectations

It's a bit scary what passes for good news in the economy today. Steve Rattner had a NYT blogpost this morning that began by telling readers:

"On its face, Friday’s announcement that the nation’s gross domestic product expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter was good news, following as it did an only marginally positive result for the previous three-month period."

Well, positive growth is better than recession, but we have to remember that we are operating at a level of out...