Dangerous New Phase of Financial Crisis (2)

In the inaugural address and on every subsequent working day of the new administration, the president has made remarks related to the economy and the financial situation. I already commented on the political theater aspects of the inaugural address; these were fully understandable, and even necessary.

But in the following days, the president has kept up the same line of discourse -- hammer the previous administration, talk down the economy. This is not uniting the public or restoring confidence, but rather the opposite. If there is very much more of this kind of talk, it will reinforce the lack of confidence in the economy and deepen the recession.

On Friday the president lowered himself to comment disparagingly on the office renovations of John Thain, late of Merrill Lynch; hours later he told congressional Republicans, "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."

Both Thain and Limbaugh are private citizens engaged in legitimate business, just like the other bankers and business-people that the administration appears to want to use regularly as foils in their play.

I expected this to be a less business-friendly administration, but I admit I did not expect it to be outright anti-business, or that there would be personal attacks on individual private citizens engaged in legitimate business. There is just something not right about an American president going in for this stuff . . . is "unseemly" the word for it?