Quote

From Phil Gramm, McCain's very wealthy top economic adviser.

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline"

This shows a "top down" economic understanding which misses the whole point. Whether we're in a recession is an academic question. What matters is the impacts on the economic lives of most Americans, and they aren't improving.

Later: The McCain campaign rapidly disowns, “Phil Gramm’s comments are not representative of John McCain’s views....."

Later: Oh, man, watch the difficulty McCain has in dealing with this. "Phil Graham doesn't speak for me." (Yeah, he's only your chief economic adviser, who is "speaking for you," outlining your economic policies, at the WSJ editorial board today.)

Later Still: In an interview, McCain jokes that Gramm will not be Secretary of the Treasury, but instead, Ambassador to Belarus.

And, Gramm tries to explain on CNN.