I may have solved a mystery.

For the last several years Americans have told pollsters our economy is sunk in recession. It has not been. But huge numbers believed it was. In 2001 one poll found 76 percent “felt” the economy was in recession.

These days the poll takers report over half of us believe the economy is in recession. One poll claimed 61 percent.

Our economy is not in a recession. It may soon be. But not for now.

The mystery is - or was - why so many people believed it was.

At first I blamed the bleak reports in mainstream media. You know the drill: “The economy added X million new jobs last year, the government reported today. However, economists believe darker clouds are gathering...” Reporters have predicted twenty of the last three recessions. And all that.

Next I attributed the gloom and doom to the political season. Nobody who is out of office is ever going to praise the economy. A campaign speech ain’t a speech unless it weeps that millions of kiddies go to bed starving. And millions of our jobs scoot overseas. “When I am President, there will be no more...”

And all that. “All that” being candidate’s commercials edged in black with music from a dirge of an opera.