Even a WaPo Columnist Gets It: The Real Economy vs. the Rhetorical Economy
Washington Post columnist and economist Robert Samuelson (HT The Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary):
“One puzzle these days is why Americans are so confident at the shopping mall and so glum in opinion polls. By many measures, the country’s prosperity is broad-based. Families are buying and renovating homes at a ferocious pace. Since mid-2003, the number of payroll jobs has increased by 4.2 million. The unemployment rate of 5 percent is low by historic standards. But in polls, Americans are downbeat…. We have a real economy and a rhetorical economy: what’s actually happening and what we say is happening. The first is often more stable than the second.”
UPDATE: Thanks to those who pointed out that Robert Samuelson is NOT the economist. My bad-Oops.
Good post, however, one flaw. Robert Samuelson is a columnist, not an economist. You are thinking of Paul Samuelson.
Comment by Kevin Irwin — November 11, 2005 @ 9:59 am
Thanks for catching that. He sure was writing like an economist writes!
Comment by TBlumer — November 11, 2005 @ 10:41 am
Trust me, he wasn’t writing like Paul Samuelson. I don’t think Paul can effectively communicate his thoughts without drawing them in forms of IS/LM schedules or household indifference curves.
Comment by Kevin Irwin — November 11, 2005 @ 11:02 am
I was visiting with my wife in her office and one of her coworkers stopped by. He’s an ostensibly educated man with a graduate degree or two. And yet he kept talking about “in this economy”. Rather than get into a kerfuffle at NIH, I just let it slide. The rhetorical economy affects people at all levels, that’s for sure.
Comment by eLarson — November 11, 2005 @ 11:58 am