The Commerce Department tells us this morning that the GDP grew during 2008, though at the slowest pace since 2001. It shrank faster during the fourth quarter than at any time since 1982.

Funny, nobody in Congress is raising the spectre of 1982 to describe our economic woes. It’s always 1929. They must have long memories.

Or maybe they find some value in blowing up the scale of the crisis? Maybe they’ve found some uses for panic.