- Move-on accuses national hero Gen. David Petraeus of "betraying us" by serving his country in Iraq;
- George Soros, a notorious 527 sponsor and international billionaire currency trader drops the following poison in the economic water: "The worst market crisis in 60 years"
While the "betray us" ad is such a disgusting smear it speaks for itself, the Soros statement (and similar statements from such avowed liberal/political economists as Paul Krugman at the New York Times) is more insidious. It is designed to sow fear in the economy and the electorate at the beginning of a Presidential election year (see the date of Soros' release: January 2008).
A crisis of confidence, which was exacerbated by this sort of Soros press release from January, has substantially passed in the financial community (but thousands of Bear Stearns, Citigroup and Bank of America employees who are now unemployed certainly know it was not a spring without job losses).
While -- as Sen. McCain has stated -- many people are hurting across the country as we recover from the dual crises of: 1) massive housing price increases which are reverting to the mean and 2) a related financial crisis of credit confidence that is causing some contraction of available credit, there is a substantial counter-argument that this is not approaching the "worst crisis in 60 years".
Unemployment nationally in the US is 5% (it was higher during the supposed "best economy ever" in the mid and late 1990s). Home ownership in the US is at its highest % in US history. The US is at its most educated in national history. Life expectancy has continued to rise in the country throughout the past 25 years. Technology continues to explode in usefulness and increase Americans' quality of life. So, in full, the naysayers and the "sky is falling" crowd should chill a little. And the naysayers and "sky is falling" crowd that are creating a crisis of confidence for political purposes should be ashamed of themselves.
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