You probably wouldn't expect a senior fellow at the Cato Institute to have high words of praise for President Barack Obama's economic policy, and Dan Mitchell doesn't disappoint in this regard.

"We’re going through the weakest recovery since the Great Depression. Income and wages have been stagnant, particularly when compared to previous expansions," he writes in a commentary.

"And while the unemployment rate has finally come down, that’s in part a consequence of people dropping out of the labor force."

Hourly wages have climbed just 2.2 percent annually on average in the six years since the Great Recession ended. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate totals only 62.9 percent, a mere 0.2 percentage point above a 37-year low.

"Yet the President seems to think that he deserves applause for his economic legacy," Mitchell states.

"The bottom line is that Obama wants people — based on zero evidence — to believe a depression would have occurred naturally in the absence of his policies."

Meanwhile, the government's bailout of financial institutions during and after the 2008-09 financial crisis may turn into the gift that keeps on giving.

"Just imagine how it outrageous it would be if some Wall Street sharpies went to court to argue that they didn’t benefit enough from the bailouts and that taxpayers should pay them tens of billions of dollars more," writesWashington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein.

"In fact, they did. And, according to legal observers, they just might prevail."

Pearlstein cites two cases in which Wall Street figures argue that the government seized their property without paying for it.

AIG's legendary ex-CEO Maurice “Hank” Greenberg is the plaintiff in one suit. He's asking for $23 billion from the government for himself and other AIG shareholders.

The other case involves three hedge funds that purchased Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares for pennies after the government bailed the companies out. The funds are Perry Capital, Fairholme Fund and Pershing Square Capital.

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