I'm not sure about Andrew, but Pete and I are old enough to remember Alfred Kahn, the economist who, during the Carter administration began to use "banana" instead of "depression" after the president reportedly was furious about Kahn's speaking the D-word in public.

We're coming up on the 30-year anniversary of this momentous event in the history of economic policymaking. Thanks to Carter and Kahn, a fruit became the name for the economic hardship people were concerned about or actually experiencing.

It was also 30 years ago that Carter was promoting a $50 per person tax rebate to help stimulate the economy.

Carter's $50/person plan was widley derided. I have a lasting memory of then Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski looking down at Council of Economic Advisors Chairman Charles Schultze from his seat at the Ways and Means Committee and asking in a very sarcastic tone what Schultze was planning to do with his $50. It was a simple question that immediately made the policy look silly.

(NOTE: Thanks to Bruce Bartlett's comment, this was corrected at 2:41 pm, May 1.)

That brings us to today when another president is refusing to allow the use of the R-word. George W. Bush does whatever possible to avoid saying it himself and has obviously made it clear to anyone inside the administration that they are not to use it either.

And while I'll leave it up to the numbers crunchers to do the actual calculation, given inflation since 1978, the value of the dollar, and the size of the economy today relative to what it was 30 years ago, $50 then is not that far away from $300 now.

Some quick thoughts:

1. Whether there is an official recession for the economy as a whole, there is clearly one in some areas of the country and some segments of the economy.  Refusing to acknowlege it is almost an insult to those going through it.

2. Just as important, regardless of whether NBER or anyone else declares the economy to be or have been in a recession, it is hard to deny that there is a recession mentality at the moment. Consumers and businesses are cutting back or at least thinking twice about spending or doing something because of a concern that they might be in the midst of a sharp downturn. That makes statistical confirmation, which seems to be what the president is hoping won't happen (or won't happen until he is out of office), irrelevant.

3. The parallels with the economic gyrations of the Carter administration may not be perfect, but they are notable. And given what happened to Carter and congressional Democrats in 1980, they should scare the hell out of Republicans.