“We know we’re in a sharp . . . downcline, and there’s no doubt that the American people know that the economy has turned down sharply. So to me, much less important is the label that’s placed on it today. Much more important is what we do about it.”
– Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the Today show, 03/18/08
At the time that Henry Paulson made this statement, there was uncertainty as to the condition of the U.S. economy. Economists could not yet say that we were in a recession.
Yet, Paulson boldly and confidently declared that we were in a sharp downcline.
As President Bush stated during Paulson’s nomination, the Secretary clearly had “an intimate knowledge of financial markets and an ability to explain economic issues in clear terms.”
We don’t exactly know what a downcline is, or why it’s not a real word, even though we are officially in one.
