Phil Gramm, top economic adviser to the McCain campaign, correctly diagnosed a problem with contemporary Americans society:
“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. “We may have a recession; we haven’t had one yet.”
“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.
“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.
Mr. Gramm said the constant drubbing of the media on the economy’s problems is one reason people have lost confidence. Various surveys show that consumer confidence has fallen precipitously this year to the lowest levels in two to three decades, with most analysts attributing that to record high gasoline prices over $4 a gallon and big drops in the value of homes, which are consumers’ biggest assets.
“Misery sells newspapers,” Mr. Gramm said. “Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day.”
Gramm is right on the money. Economists have for years been mystified by the stark divergence between actual conditions and public opinion about the economy.
This is not to say that everything is fine. Indeed, the last year has seen objective indicators turn for the worse, thanks largely to the skyrocketing price of oil, though it still doesn’t merit the level of national angst we see today. Nor does this recent change retroactively justify the people who have been crying “recession” for the entirety of the Bush administration.
The overly sour public mood is easily attributable to the grossly distorted and hyperbolic news coverage we’ve been inundated with. One of the primary indicators that the public mood is not justified has been the disparity between how people rate their own finances versus how they think others are doing. Generally they have said their situation is okay while everyone else is doing poorly. Well how would they know? They get it from news, of course.
McCain, sadly, has no room for such honesty on his Straight Talk Express, though there’s plenty of room under it:
“So, I strongly disagree,” McCain told reporters gathered for a press conference that was added to his schedule following a town hall meeting near Detroit at least in part to deal with Gramm’s comments that the economy was not in as poor shape as is portrayed.
…”I believe that the person here in Michigan who just lost his job isn’t suffering from a ‘mental recession,'” McCain said, citing Gramm’s remarks published in the Washington Times. “I believe that the mother here in Michigan, around the country trying to get enough money to educate her children isn’t ‘whining.'”
America, McCain made sure to note, “is in great difficulty.”
“Vote McCain: Because the democrats just aren’t gloomy enough!”
Obama, for his part, thought whining about the comments would be a perfect response to being accused of belonging to a nation of whiners:
“It’s not just a figment of your imagination,” Obama said. “Let’s be clear. This economic downturn is not in your head.”
“It isn’t whining to ask government to step in and give families some relief,” he said, drawing a standing ovation from the nearly 3,000 people in a high school gymnasium. “And I think it’s time we had a president who doesn’t deny our problems or blame the American people for them but takes responsibility and provides the leadership to solve them.”
Rumor has it Obama then passed out tiny violins.