There’s a new buzzword making the rounds on financial cable shows, Web sites and blogs. It’s “The New Normal,” a phrase that’s supposed to reflect the changed economic landscape following last year’s epic meltdown. Here’s the basic argument. First, you have a crisis that deep-sixes house prices and saddles financial institutions with mountains of smelly, indigestible mortgage-backed securities and other derivatives. The result is a recession that’s both wide and deep. Second, you have huge job losses, with official unemployment levels approaching 10% (and probably higher if you add in those who have stopped looking). Third, employment woes cause...