from the hip

The current American recession seems to me to be bigger and deeper than most commentaries, especially in the United States, would indicate. I will say much more about that in later postings.

I visit the US quite frequently. I follow American media. My feeling, strongly held, is that the seriousness of the current recession in the US is played down and not understood in the US.

I was strongly reminded of this when I recently read an article in New York Times about president Bush. The article stated:

Bush Acknowledges Tough Economic Times

By JOHN HOLUSHA

Published: March 14, 2008

President Bush acknowledged Friday that the nation’s economy was going through troubled times, but cautioned against overreacting to current problems, saying such actions could cause longer-term problems.

Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, Mr. Bush said “in a free market economy there will be good times and bad times” and acknowledged “we’re going through a hard time.”

Reading this, I at first felt that this sounded profound. Seemingly, the Danish newspaper Politiken thought so too. But then, a moment later, I felt like laughing. I may even have laughed. The statements strongly reminded me of one of my favorite movies, the hilarious Peter Sellers movie Being There (1979), based on Jerzi Kosinski’s novel Being There. The main character, Chance, is the epitome of every expert and too many politicians – full of platitudes and opinions. All empty, of course.

But I am sure president Bush did not intentionally promote the movie.