The President doth protest too much, methinks

Ordinarily, when all the economy chest-pounding and garment-rending talk starts up, I tune out. I'm not smart enough to be able to figure out who is right, who is wrong, who is sincere, who is lying (and why).

With the small caveat that I never ever believe anything Jim Cramer says. Not that I think he's lying - dude just seems unhinged.

But this recent round of bad news and, more importantly, the overblown rhetoric from economic elites, has raised my eyebrows.

The last few days I've been sick in bed, but managed to catch bits of the "news" updates that come on AM 1100 like every 8 minutes. (That is when I wasn't trying to strategically nap during the Mike Trivisonno show.)

The Bear Stearns buyout intrigued me. The pending demise of those evil fuckers at National City, both worried and gladdened me. Worried because (a) what might it be the harbinger of, and (b) if it folds will I be able to get that rainy day $23.07 out? Gladdened because those terrible service, exploitative monsters don't deserve to be in business.

My optimistic side tells me maybe all we'll see is the hyper-greedy of the bank firms go down, for every National City that implodes, hopefully a more ethical Fifth Third will stay afloat (if not prosper).

But that optimistic side, genetically predisposed towards hiding anyway, goes AWOL when I keep hearing statements from the prez, fed chair, and others talking about how strong our economy is and how good things are. Obviously, these things are not fully true, and while I'm quite used to this administration treating "truth" as an optional condiment rather than a required entree, the fact that this mantra lies at the top of everyone's talking points memo is starting to unnerve me.

While it is an empirically documented fact that irrationally exuberant eliterhetoric does improve objective and subject economic reality, the fact that these guys seem suitably worried to employ these efforts is not exactly a good sign.