Real income growth is deteriorating because of job losses, and income growth is going to remain weak until such time as it's reversed by a tax cut, which is months away at the earliest. Then there's a huge wealth loss [from the stock market] and no pent-up demand for goods.

I don't think any benefit of the dividend tax elimination is worth the increase in the deficit.

In the past two years, we've seen the budget go from surplus to deficit, adding about $400 billion of stimulus to the economy, but we've still lost 2.5 million private-sector jobs.

We've basically been in one long recession that started in the fall of 2000.

The risk to the economy is that we lose the consumer -- and I think we are losing the consumer.

The stock market has given off false signals in terms of anticipating recessions, but it has never given off a false signal about recovery before the recession ended.

In Japan, for example, the debt deflation started in 1990 and price deflation started in 1992 or 1993. That's what we're in for right now.

The country is entering a period of debt deflation, where households and businesses are forced to move funds from spending to debt repayment. This forces down economic growth and reduces inflationary pressures and long-term interest rates.

The economy's not doing well, so it's appropriate to do what you can. But the notion that deficit spending is a panacea is greatly over-advertised.