Economic Rorschach Test

The U.S. economy was front and center on the talk shows Sunday, with administration officials past and present expressing guarded confidence that it’s in a recovery mode.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, appearing on ABC News’ “This Week,” said he thinks the economy is back in growth mode and, “We’re seeing some encouraging signs of healing” following better-than-expected unemployment data released Friday.

Still, Geithner added, “This is going to take a while, and it’s going to be uneven, but there are encouraging signs in this report.”

Geithner also expressed confidence that the risk of a “double-dip” recession is receding.

“I think we have much, much lower risk of that today than at any time over the last 12 months or so,” he said. “We are in an economy that was growing at the rate of almost 6% of GDP in the fourth quarter of last year,” the fastest in almost six years.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Henry Paulson, Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush when the financial crisis began, said that, “The economy is clearly recovering. There is more certainty. Part of it is confidence and psychology … but ultimately the private sector will do what needs to be done” to create jobs.

Joining Paulson on the program was former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said that the jobs report “doesn’t signal a turnaround, but a turnaround that has already occurred that is not moving aggressively. It is going to be a slow, trudging thing.”

If it’s the image of an economic Wile E. Coyote moment, you can feel confident that you are a totally sane and clear-thinking individual.