Hint: It's Not A Car

For those who want to fix the economy, here's a clue:

It's not a car.

You can't rev it up (34,300). You can't jump-start it either (1 million). Nor is it a motorcycle, so you can't "kick-start the economy", as 73,600 have attempted.

The poor analogies for "economic management" go beyond vehicles: 430,000 want to reboot the economy. These analogies fail because they are analogous to nothing. Economies are not 'rebooted', 'kick-started', or 'revved'. Tim Geithner isn't in the driver's seat, pushing levers and steering around chicanes. He's in a big office chair, squinting at tables of figures that reflect the agglomerated decisions of millions of car drivers, computer users, construction workers, soccer players, insurance estimators, and pantyhose salesmen.

So how should we talk about the economy? We can't expostulate theory every time we speak, so we need some shorthand. Here are a few analogies that could mean something:

• Tying the hands of taxpayers/local gov'ts/businesses. Regulations or endogenous constraints can narrow the number of choices available to economic agents, worsening their well-being.
• Herding cats. Timmy G. can relate to this one, I'm sure.
• Mending wall. Externalities can create perverse incentives; good fences make good neighbors.
• Losing the milk money. People in positions of trust can abuse their power with carelessness or malice.
• Pushing a car up a hill. For those of you who love car analogies: the fact that GM is dead as a Chevy Vega hasn't stopped the government from trying to huff and puff it back to life.

Lebanon Election Wrap-Up

The March 14 Forces won yesterday's elections in Lebanon decisively but not overwhelmingly. They'll remain a slim majority in Parliament, but be obliged to form another national unity government with their opponents.

The Daily Star notes that Christians were the swing vote in this elections, while Sunnis and Druze stayed with March 14 and Shi'ites anchored the pro-Syrian coalition. Less than 30 of the 128 seats were really contested, and the most hotly contested of these were in the Metn and Zahle, where I have family. The Metn's seats ended up splitting, while Zahle's seven seats went to the March 14 Forces.

Al-Jazeera editorializes its 'news' report with a photo of "March 14 supporters celebrat[ing]", which shows a scantily clad Lebanese brunette draining a large beer. The Arab media frames Lebanese politics as a contest between supporters of Hezbollah and the "Western-backed" March 14 coalition. The Western media is more likely to call the opposition "Syrian-backed" or "Iranian-backed" and note that the March 14 Forces rallied around the assassinated Rafiq Hariri.

Lebanese Elections

A Lebanese Shi'ite wrote this prayer ahead of Sunday's national elections.

A Prayer Supplication Translated into English from the original Arabic

O Lord who is worshipped by all Lebanese, we have stood in this place with broken hearts before your glory and mercy, and souls repenting to you.

We are mistaken sinners.

We confess to you that we have not been faithful to our country.

We have surrendered to divisions, and have been pleased with our hostilities, so have mercy on us. O Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us our sins.

God, purify our memories and make us able to stand at the far and near past to learn a lesson from the many disasters, and meditate on the sweet reconciliations and the rich areas of agreement.

God, we ask you to join our hearts and cause friendship among our souls.

God, help us to accept one another as citizens and strengthen the spirit of good citizenship among us.

God rescue us from double-tongued speech and actions, and make our secret just like our known facts.

God, show us the thin dividing thread between religion and politics so that religion can be safe and politics can be straight and the nation can live.

God, teach us to teach our generations how to form their present and build their future, not with words only but with the pattern of life, mutual giving, respect, and promoting tranquility and peace.

God, beautify us with mutual respect and free us by obeying the law and caring for rights and doing our duty and make equality - based on justice - our goal and freedom our salvation.

God, teach us how to dialogue, and how to understand differences and how to solve our problems, however many they are, without resorting to violence.

God, we promise you that we will forbid violence and work to avoid it and work to promote tranquility among us so that Lebanon may stand. Amen.

Check, check

Rodney Harrison ended his active football career last season with a wave to the Razor crowd from the stretcher on which he lay. Today he's announcing the beginning of his broadcasting career, with NBC.

Harrison's ready for the microphone. How do I know? He used literally correctly in a sentence:

Harrison told reporters on a conference call that he wanted to leave on his terms with his health intact.

"A major goal despite the last couple of injuries was to be able to literally walk away from the game. I’m very excited to walk off the field and very much at a peaceful place in my life."

It's a point of Patriot pride that an athlete fresh from the field has a better grasp of English than the average broadcaster, who might be heard today saying that "Rodney literally played his heart out for the fans". Nope, but he did literally play his quadriceps out, and we'll take that as a measure of his heart.

For more on literality, see Literally, A Web Log.

Barbarian Treasury Secretary Fails to Convince Middle Kingdom Scions

My friend and I were wondering aloud yesterday about whether East Asian cultures have a different sense of humor. Here's one American funnyman who got a chuckle:

"Chinese financial assets are very safe," Geithner said [in a question-and-answer session after a speech to students at Peking University]. His response drew laughter from the audience.

Tim Geithner is the Secretary of the Treasury.

Me?

A friend sent me a link to this blog, saying its author a dead ringer for yours truly, from the Boston cap to the "dissertative conversational tone". Agree or disagree?