WARREN MEYER: Deceptive Chart of the Day from Kevin Drum and Mother Jones to Desperately Sell the “Austerity” Hypothesis. “This is absurdly disingenuous. Why? Simple — it is impossible to evaluate post recession spending without looking at what spending did during the recession. All these numbers begin after the recession is over. But what if, in the current recession, we increased spending much more than in other recessions. We would still be at a higher level vs. pre-recession spending now, despite a lack of further increases after the recession.”