Translation: “Let me pretend to say something meaningful”

Posted by Marc Hodak on January 8, 2008 under Economics | Be the First to Comment

“I’m optimistic, as I’ve seen this economy, you know, go through periods of uncertainty,” the president said. “I like the fundamentals, they look strong, but there are new signals that should cause concern. And one of the signals is the fact that the housing market is soft.”

This was President Bush, who appears to be talking about the economy quite a bit recently. Here’s the proper way of interpreting this statement:

I’m optimistic, as I’ve seen this economy, you know, go through periods of uncertainty.

This means nothing. A President is basically paid to be optimistic. Hillary is not optimistic, but that’s just because she’s not president. Then, there’s the fact that the economy is inherently uncertain, almost by definition. Why mention or write about “periods of uncertainty” when one would never hear about “periods of economic certainty?” Also, nice touch for the author to include the “you know.” Why did she do that? Most writers don’t include their subject’s “ums” “ahs” and “you knows,” but AP writers often do that with Bush. It makes him look like a high school kid pretending to talk about economics rather than a Harvard MBA. Bush certainly says “you know,” like many speakers, but why include that in an article about the economy, unless that’s not really what the writer is writing about?

I like the fundamentals, they look strong, but there are new signals that should cause concern.

Here is Bush repeating what he said in the first sentence, except in Wallstreetese. This phrase is not aimed at people who speak that language so much as the people who hear other people speak that language. It makes “I’m optimistic, but there’s uncertainty” sound more financial or scientific or whatever Bush thinks might comfort the typical AP reader.

And one of the signals is the fact that the housing market is soft.

At best, another subjective statement without content; at worst, a confusion of cause and effect. There are any number of reasons that the housing market is soft, none of which necessarily provide a “signal” about the economy as a whole. In fact, it’s not even clear that housing prices coming down from extraordinary peaks is a bad thing for anyone not speculating on housing prices.

Personally, I don’t think I could do it. I don’t think I could come up with creative ways to say nothing, day after day, like your typical politician can, especially when talking about the economy. This is a kind of art form. A dark, improvident, cynical art.