The D-Word

The D-Word

I know I said I was offline, but I became so obsessed with a word today that I had to blog about it.

Unlike my usual posts, this is not inspired by a word that I’ve been hearing. It’s about a word I HAVEN’T been hearing. Ben Bernanke hasn't said it. President Bush didn't say it when he made an emergency-feeling address to the nation tonight. None of the congressional leaders dealing with this financial crisis have said it, either.

In talking about our financial crisis, the Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke has said several times that we are staring down a possibility so dire that it justifies a $700 billion bailout of mishandled financial firms. The threat, he said, is recession.

But, funny thing that. Some experts and pundits have been arguing for at least a year that we are already in a recession, or something close to it.

So is it possible that the real threat is so dire that our leaders, Bernanke, Bush and Barney Frank included, are literally too afraid to say it? That the real threat starts not with an R but with a D and is best known for a Great one we had 60-odd years ago?

And is it possible that this word, if spoken by certain high-ranking officials, could almost will itself into existence?

Let’s hope not.