baked in the cake; drawers

[Garson O'Toole]

 Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> A CNN commentator yesterday assured us that a new or resurgent recession is
> neither "inevitable," "in the cards," nor "baked in the cake."  No OED.
>
> From 2005, e.g.  [
> http://www.safehaven.com/article/3101/kicks-just-keep-getting-harder-to-find]:
> "Sadly, it will require at least one recession and possibly two. This will
> of course make it more difficult to balance the US government budget. But it
> will slow consumer spending. Those recessions are baked in the cake. They
> are going to happen. But they do not have to be 70's style deep recessions."

The former head of Citibank, Walter Wriston, used the now idiomatic
expression "baked in the cake" in 1978. Database matches link the
phrase to the prediction of recessions

Time magazine
Monday, Oct. 30, 1978
Business: Fun and Expletives Repleted

The major fear of the business chiefs was that monetary policy will
not be made tight enough to curb inflation and the Administration will
ultimately go for wage-price controls. Citibank Chief Walter Wriston
leaned back in a soft couch and remarked: "Diocletian tried controls
in 301 A.D. They didn't work then, and they won't work now. It's baked
in the cake that we're going to have a recession in 1980. People are
always saying that alcohol doesn't make you drunk, and monetary policy
doesn't give you inflation."

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,912238,00.html

Garson

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