Mullings: An American Cyber-column by Rich Galen

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Mullings: An American Cyber-column by Rich Galen

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An American Cyber-Column

Euope's Economy and Other Funny Things

Rich Galen
Friday May 14, 2004

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When the news of the murder of Nick Berg came out, I was drumming my fingers on my desktop, waiting for our allies in Europe to repeat their performance of last week when, having glanced at the Abu Ghraib photos, they raced across our television screens like models for a new edition of that Edvard Munch painting �

Dear Mr. Mullings:
We were hoping to avoid this but here, in your first week home, you have returned to the discredited habit of using references which are not only obscure, but often cascade one over the other like so many 17-year-cicadas being power-washed off the sidewalk in front of a K Street office building so Washington lobbyists, on their way to peddle influence in the corridors of power, don't risk getting locust guts on the soles their $400 Gucci loafers, to make your so-called point.
Signed,
Dennis Miller

� that Edvard Munch painting, "The Scream."

I was not disappointed in the multi-lingual silence which greeted us from abroad, because I expected it. I suspect there are some in Old Europe who agreed with the murderers when they said the beheading of Mr. Berg was in retaliation for the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

In civilized societies that makes as much sense as someone saying "Your dog used my lawn for a toilet bowl, so I burned down your house" and the neighbors on the next block agreeing that was a legitimate reaction.

So, I was thrilled to read reporter Mark Landler's piece in the New York Times business section the other day that "The United States and Asia are leaving Europe behind in an accelerating, but uneven global economic recovery."

Well, OK! Finally. Some good news!

According to the article, economists for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) predict "the 12-nation euro zone will grow just 1.6 percent this year, compared with 4.7 percent in the United States. [While] Japan, once the economic sick man of the world, is projected to grow 3 percent, nearly double Europe's pace."

But wait! It gets better!

"Germany," Landler writes, "where consumers remain in near paralysis, is expected to grow only 1.1 percent in 2004."

Don't touch that dial! Here's more: "The most humbling fact for Europeans is that so far, their woes have had little effect on the global economy, in part because Asia has grown in importance as a trading partner for the United States."

Finally, the OECD's chief economist named (I suh-ware this is true) Jean-Philippe Cotis is quoted as saying, "Being a Frenchman and a European it hurts me to say it, but it is true: Europe is not indispensable to this recovery."

Hey! Jean-Philippe! Europeans generally, and Frenchmen in particular, are amongst the most dispensable people on the planet. Any planet.

And, by the way, keep your French Poodle off my lawn.

According to the Times, "Mr. Cotis said the recovery in the United States and Asia was 'strong and sustainable.' Early fears that the rebound was not generating new jobs in the United States no longer seem warranted, he said."

Wait. The recovery is strong an sustainable and we're likely to create new jobs?

Are you surprised that this was in the business section of the NY Times? And not even the regular business section, but the WORLD business section.

Where do you think this story would have been placed if the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development had issued a report that the US economy was sagging and unemployment was growing? Keerekt: A-1 complete with quotes from John Kerry about why this is all George W. Bush's fault and he should have listened to our European partners in the first place.

As my neighbor James Carville used to say (when it suited his purposes), It's the economy, stupid!

Now that the economy is chugging along quite nicely, thank you, the Democrats are buying White-Out by the case and changing those signs to read, "It's the standing of the United States in the court of world opinion, stupid!

Which, unfortunately for John Kerry, doesn't trip off the tongue as easily.

Even in French.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: A photo of the Edvard Munch painting "The Scream," a link to the New York Times article in question, and an absolutely self-serving Mullfoto of the Day.