This Sonntags Zeitung TV commercial from last December is a followup to a print ad they published in May 2009. The Swiss are entitled to a little smugness, insofar as they’re in the global top-5 for positive account balances while we’re literally the brokest nation on Earth, but I was really pulling for Europeans to rekindle their lost honeymoon with Obama. Very disappointing:
Sonntags Zeitung is Switzerland’s leading Sunday paper, and – like all serious Swiss newspapers – is published in high German.
That’s apropos of nothing, except the Germans told Obama to pound sand on trade issues last November after instituting a bunch of measures. Those moves were condescendingly slammed by anti-austerity economists like Krugman, who insisted that the pendulum needed to be swung in the direction of legislation that paid off liberal constituencies while not creating any jobs. The result – after months of the White House indulging in exactly the fantasies mocked by the commercial – is that as of this morning the Euro is climbing strongly against the dollar on worries related to American debt.
But since I didn’t have any other way to work “Germany” into the post, you got “all serious Swiss newspapers are published in high German.” That happens because Swiss-German doesn’t have codified grammar or spelling, FYI.
References:
* TV spot: Swiss newspaper mocks Obama’s economic policy. [Copyranter]
* Another Swiss Paper Mocks Obama [Animal NY]
* Per the CIA, the United States is the Brokest Nation in the World [JR Deputy Accountant]
* Europe’s honeymoon with Obama is over [Boston.com]
* Germany rebuffs Obama on trade gap [Washtimes]
* Nobel Economist Krugman Slams German Austerity [Speigel]
* Krauthammer: “Stimulus Was a Payoff, Not a Jobs Creator” (video) [Frugal Cafe]
* Obama’s “jobs bill” has a slight defect [Hot Air]
* Dollar Reaches Two-Month Low Versus Euro on Debt-Crisis Views, Economy [Bloomberg]
* Payne: He Came, He Saw, He Spent [Payne via Lou Dobbs]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Germany
* Economy
* Europe
