Following today’s “disappointing” job numbers, in which the economy increased the number of new jobs it has created for, gee, I don’t know, 48 straight months, Ellen Zentner, United States macroeconomist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York, said this:
“The economy tanked in December.”
The verb tank is defined as “failed completely.”
I expect to see Ellen soon selling apples on the street, along with everyone else who has failed completely.
This post also appeared on Political Mavens.
5 comments:
Dennis:
So this is about the definition of "tank"?
Tank: 7. Slang. to do poorly or decline rapidly; fail: The movie tanked at the box office.
—Verb phrase
So Dennis, do you really have to re-define words to find something to write about? What type of journalism is this?
Tank: –verb phrase, 1. to lose $9.8 billion in one quarter, eg, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup in 2007, 2. to lose profits by 43-57%, eg, Sears from 2006-2007, 3. an advance in the average yearly increase in the Dow Jones average by just 0.05%, as from 2000 (11,722, Clinton administration), to 2008 (12,159, Bush administration, an increase of 3.7%, or 0.05%/year). The economy has tanked during the Bush years.
So Dennis:
John McLaughlin posed the question “Why has the economy tanked?” on his discussion show “The McLaughlin Group" – televised Sat. Jan 19. None of the 4 discussants, including Pat Buchanan, suggested that the question was flawed. Hmmm, I guess they don’t read your column.
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