Almost a year has passed since the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that the US economy had contracted for two quarters in a row. Some people believe, wrongly, that two quarters of falling GDP is the official definition of a recession. Economic negativity ran rampant, especially but not only on the political right.

The interesting question now is why, at least according to some surveys, the public remains negative on the economy – as negative as it has been in the past amid severe economic downturns – even though those recession calls were clearly a false alarm, and the economy is actually looking remarkably strong? Or maybe the question should be: why do people say that they’re negative on the economy?