Lost decade, here we come.

Paul Krugman:

By my count we’ve had four adverse surprises lately: GDP, private-sector payrolls, service-sector survey, and new claims for unemployment insurance. Since there seem to be a fair number of Charlie Browns out there — people who keep expecting a housing recovery, even though Lucy keeps pulling away the football — I guess we should add weak housing numbers to the mix.

It looks like a sputter, not a crash, but it’s definitely not good.

The bond market agrees: 10-year rates are back down to 3.17 percent. (S&P? Never heard of them).

The tragedy is that even as the real economy disappoints, yet again, Washington is entirely focused on dire events that aren’t happening: fiscal crisis, runaway inflation, dollar collapse.

Lost decade, here we come.