#957 Believe Reprieve

We are being constantly reminded about the state of the economy. Some days, Obama must hope for some other crisis to raise up into the headlights of the headlong rushing semi which is our media.
You can tell he’d much rather be engaged in the process of carving out the exemplary in a mundane world, but such higher aspirations to historical prowess keep getting muddled by that same mediocre reality.
He tries though. For the first couple of weeks of his administration it was appointment this and presidential edict to do that. Cabinet appointments, stem cell research, off-shore drilling, Guantanamo, he was throwing out press releases right and left. It seemed like a great strategy. Hell, even old Rod Blagojevich helped. Because he too assisted in what must have been Obama’s plan. Keep the bad economy news off the front page. Except to say he’s fixing it. Because the economy and its health is founded on one simple thing— Belief.
Yep belief.
Money doesn’t mean anything. It’s paper, data bits, and metal, and not very good metal at that. It’s a commonly agreed on principle of exchange guaranteed by the full faith of the United States Government. Faith, belief, delusion, they all amount to the same thing.
So the more we believe, the better we’ll be.
Whenever there’s an economic bubble-and-burst like we’ve had recently with the mortgage crises and credit crunch, I say to people who asked what happened, “Remember pogs?”
Bottle cap liners. Supposedly worth amazing amounts because they were collector’s items. People traded them with nearly religious frenzy. Beanie Babies? Magic Cards? All the same, all the temporary rage, all as substantial and blown away as so much smoke.
Obama’s media misdirection is to ease the fear and increase the belief to get things percolating again. People need to spend. Pent up demand will get us out. The stimulus plan will work if people believe it will work. Ya gotta believe for economic reprieve.
But when the critics proclaim they hope it will fail, that proclamation alone might make it so. Negativity has a disproportionate amount of power at this point.
So to paraphrase a once popular campaign slogan, “Spend Here Spend Now and Spend Often.”
America, ya gotta love it.