The recent NY Times piece is titled, with no intended irony, "Welcome to the Recovery."
Geithner's story is essentially this: Don't believe what you experience in your own life; believe us. The economy is really a lot better than it looks (true on Wall Street, but not on Main Street.) Geithner had the bad timing to write this just before the economy lost another 131,000 jobs.
This is Geithner's variation on Marxist economics -- in this case Groucho, who famously said in the movie Duck Soup, "Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"
Here are choice extracts from Geithner's op-ed:
• "Private job growth has returned -- not as fast as we would like, but at an earlier stage of this recovery than in the last two recoveries. Manufacturing has generated 136,000 new jobs in the past six months."
• "Businesses have repaired their balance sheets and are now in a strong financial position to reinvest and grow."
• "American families are saving more, paying down their debt and borrowing more responsibly. This has been a necessary adjustment because the borrow-and-spend path we were on wasn't sustainable."
• "The auto industry is coming back, and the Big Three -- Chrysler, Ford and General Motors -- are now leaner, generating profits despite lower annual sales."
• "Major banks, forced by the stress tests to raise capital and open their books, are stronger and more competitive. Now, as businesses expand again, our banks are better positioned to finance growth."
Basically the White House is saying, it's all good! But in reality it's very bad for the average Joe and Jane on the street. There is very little credit for them at the banks that they bailed out. There is risk that Social Security will be cut. Healthcare is still WAY too expensive and hard to get. There are still not enough jobs to get the economy going. Groucho was right people, "Believe your own eyes!"