PrintJune 24, 2009
The Dual Arts of Saving and Creating
A joke is told about a man who walked about constantly blowing a whistle, claiming that the annoying ringing sound kept the saber tooth tigers away. When confronted about the spuriousness of his preventative measures he responds: well, it must be working; you don't see any saber tooth tigers around, do you? An equally inscrutable brand of logic runs through Obama's triumphant declaration that, though the country's unemployment rate has swiftly reached the 10% mark, he has actually "saved" 150,000 jobs. I suppose the number is really immaterial; he might just as well have said that he saved 5 million jobs. The question is how anybody, including Obama himself, can possibly measure this non-falsifiable, purely speculative claim. I can almost imagine the conversation which must've transpired in the Oval Office between Obama and his uncommonly shrewd advisors.O: How do you expect people to take me seriously when I say that I have actually saved jobs while we are facing the...(Read Full Article)
