Regular readers, or simply those with good memories for the jovial Cornell University economist Alfred Kahn, who briefly served as Jimmy Carter's czar over wage-price controls, as well as the last head of the unlamented Civil Aeronautics Board (where he deregulated the domestic airline industry), will recall that he was strictly instructed by the White House not to utter the "R-word" (recession) in Congressional testimony he was about to give. [read post]