The economy's been growing at a rate less than half the average for the recoveries following the nine previous postwar recessions. Accompanying the worst recovery ever is the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression, the Congressional Budget Office has noted.

Real average hourly earnings fell 1.1 percent between February of last year and this February, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Americans are being squeezed more than these data indicate. The Consumer Price Index rose just 2.9 percent last year, but the American Institute for Economic Research compiles an "Everyday Price Index," which includes only things the typical consumer buys at least once a month, and it rose 7.2 percent.

High unemployment, slow growth and soaring gasoline prices are the product chiefly of government policies. They can be ameliorated, swiftly and substantially, if those policies are changed. But it's too late to vote our way out of our biggest economic problem.

Our national debt is $15.6 trillion. It doesn't include the promises made to Social Security and Medicare recipients, or the pensions of federal workers ($50.5 trillion); unfunded pensions for state and local government workers ($4.4 trillion), or the $11.4 trillion we owe on home mortgages, credit cards and auto and student loans.

Add it all up, and each American owes about $261,000. Per capita income is about $27,000.

Big trouble looms once national government debt exceeds 90 percent of the gross domestic product, economists Carmen Reinhardt and Kenneth Rogoff said after studying financial crises in 66 countries for their 2009 book, "This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly." U.S. debt already exceeds 100 percent of GDP.

Trouble starts with sluggish growth, but ends, typically, with a spectacular crash, hyperinflation and depression.

The collapse of the dollar is a mathematical certainty if we keep running large deficits, and the Federal Reserve keeps printing money to paper them over, the head of the world's largest hedge fund said last July. The crash will come late this year or early next, Ray Dalio predicted.

So it may be too late to defuse the debt bomb. But (to mix metaphors) if we know a tsunami's coming, we should get off the beach.

Private household debt has declined each year since the recession started. But politicians borrow and spend faster than ever. Debt has increased more in less than four years under President Barack Obama than in eight under George W. Bush.

Federal spending has gone up almost every year since 1969. Since 1970, federal spending per household has risen 100 percent while median household income has risen only 20 percent.

During the Obama administration, spending has soared but real per capita disposable income has been flat since the "recovery" began, data collected by the Bureau of Economic Affairs indicate. In the private sector, the real incomes of workers have declined for a decade.

This is not coincidence. Government does more to hurt than to foster economic growth. The annual cost to comply with federal regulations rose to $1.75 trillion in 2008, a 3 percent real increase over five years, according to a Small Business Administration study. The Obama administration has added 106 new regulations with a compliance cost of $46 billion since, the Heritage Foundation estimates. For each federal regulator eliminated, the private sector would, on average, create 98 jobs, the Phoenix Center has calculated.

The nations which recover fastest after a crash are those which sharply restrict government interference in the economy. The "economic miracle" in post-WWII Germany is the most spectacular example, but history is replete with others.

The federal government will spend about 31 percent more in the current fiscal year than was spent in 2008. The president's cronies will benefit. Most Americans won't.

Yet when times are tough, few propose that government tighten its belt. The budget that House Republicans passed last week is "thinly veiled social Darwinism," Mr. Obama said. But even under the GOP budget, federal spending rises year after year.

More Americans have been harmed than helped by the enormous growth of government. Growing it more slowly won't make things better. It's time to give Leviathan a haircut.

Jack Kelly is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio.

停止浪費！到時間削減政府規模

經濟的不斷增長的速度低於一半以下九個以前的戰後經濟衰退的平均回收率。伴隨著有史以來最糟糕的恢復是持續的高失業的最長期限是大蕭條以來，美國國會預算辦公室已知悉。

實際平均時薪下降了去年二月至今年二月的1.1％ ，勞工統計局說。

美國人受到擠壓不止這些數據表明。消費物價指數去年僅上升了2.9％ ，但是美國經濟研究院編制的“每天價格指數”，其中包括典型的消費者購買每月至少一次，則上升7.2％唯一的東西。

高失業率，低增長和汽油價格飆升是政府政策的產物主要是。它們可以改善，迅速大幅度降低，如果這些政策改變。但為時已晚投我們的出路我們的最大的經濟問題。

我們的國家債務是156000億美元。它不包括社會保障和醫療保險者所做的承諾，或聯邦政府工作人員（ 505000億美元）的撫卹金，資金沒有著落的養老金為國家和當地政府工作人員（440萬億美元） ，或114000億美元我們應該對住房抵押貸款，信用卡汽車和學生貸款。

說起來，每個美國人欠約261000美元。人均收入約為港幣27,000元。

麻煩大了織機一次國家政府債務超過90 ％的國內生產總值，經濟學家卡門萊因哈特和肯尼斯·羅格夫研究金融危機在66個國家為他們2009年的書後說， “這次不同：八個世紀的金融蠢事的。 ”美國的債務已經超過了GDP的100％ 。

麻煩開始增長乏力，但結束後，通常情況下，一個壯觀的崩潰，惡性通貨膨脹和抑鬱症。

美元的崩潰是一個數學的確定性，如果我們保持巨額赤字，以及美聯儲不斷印鈔紙他們過來，是世界上最大的對沖基金的負責人去年7月表示。崩潰會來今年年底或明年年初，雷 - 戴利奧預測。

因此，它可能為時已晚，以化解債務炸彈。但（混合隱喻）如果我們知道了海嘯的來臨，我們應該下車的海灘。

私人家庭債務已逐年下降，因為經濟衰退開始。但政治家借貸和消費比以往更快。債務增加了更多的下奧巴馬總統不到四年的時間比在8以下喬治· W·布什。

聯邦開支幾乎每年都自1969年以來上漲了。自1970年以來，每戶聯邦支出已上升100 ％，而家庭收入中位數僅上升20％ 。

在奧巴馬政府的支出已經飆升，但由於“恢復”人均實際可支配收入一直持平開始，由經濟事務局收集的數據表明。在私營部門，工人的實際收入下降了十年。

這不是巧合。政府做更多的傷害，而不是促進經濟增長。每年的費用，以符合聯邦法規上升至17.5萬億美元的2008年，超過五年3 ％的實際增長，根據小企業管理局的研究。奧巴馬政府已經添加了46美元十億合規成本106新規以來，美國傳統基金會估計。對於每一個聯邦監管淘汰，私營部門將平均，創造就業機會98 ，鳳凰中心已計算。

其中一個崩潰後恢復最快的國家是那些嚴格限制政府在經濟中的干擾。在二戰後德國“經濟奇蹟”是最壯觀的例子，但歷史充滿了別人。

聯邦政府將花費更多在當前財年的約31％，比花在於2008年。總統的親信將受益。大多數美國人不會。

然而，當時間是艱難的，很少建議政府勒緊褲帶。 ，眾議院共和黨人通過上週的預算是“路人皆知的社會達爾文主義， ”奧巴馬說。但即使在共和黨的預算，聯邦政府開支一年後上升的一年。

越來越多的美國人受到傷害比得益於政府的巨大增長。更緩慢增長不會使事情變得更好。現在是時候讓利維坦理髮。

傑克·凱利是一位專欄作家為匹茲堡郵報和俄亥俄州托萊多的刀片。