Low Stimulus

In an effort to literally get out in front on the stimulus rebate, Cheney poses with the Director of the Philadelphia Regional Financial Center in Philadelphia.  Between this shot, and the other White House pic of Cheney (sans glasses, seeming to scrutinize a stimulus check), the whole exercise feels really depressing.

Because the economic picture — including galloping food and gasoline prices, mortgage foreclosures, and the like — doesn’t typically lend itself to vivid news imagery, it’s something we’re all feeling now without much chance to address it here.  This cavernous warehouse of rebate checks, however, seems to do a good job of conceptualizing the gloom.

Besides the endless monotony of battleship grey (sort of a monochromatic reminder of how much money the war on terror has siphoned off), all that empty shelving, and floor space without a worker in sight, seems to not just telegraph fewer shoppers in stores, but a lot fewer workers.

(image: David Bohrer/White House.  Philadelphia. May 8, 2008. whitehouse.gov)