You've Got To Have Heart

For John, BLUF:  Yes, this is old, but it is still timely, and worth it for the clip, at the link, of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Explaining America to the NYT

From Don Surber Blog, by Retired Reporter Don Surber, 14 April 2020.

Here is the lede plus four:

Neil Irwin is a senior economics correspondent for the New York Times.  He showcased his ignorance in his latest offering to the public, "Everything Is Awful.  So Why Is the Stock Market Booming?"

The column is the gloom and doom the left has churned out throughout my lifetime.  Ever since the Great Depression brought us FDR, they have rooted for another one.  Obama disappointed them.  But this time -- under the charismatic, super-intelligent, and definitely not senile Joe Biden -- the nation will finally capitulate and embrace communism, er, um, socialism.

Irwin wrote, "What on earth is the stock market doing?

"Death and despair are all around.  The number of people filing for unemployment benefits each of the last two weeks was about 10 times the previous record — and is probably being artificially held back by overloaded government systems.  Vast swaths of American business are shuttered indefinitely.  The economic quarter now underway will most likely feature Great Depression-caliber shrinkage in economic activity.

"Yet at Thursday’s close, the S&P 500 was up 25% from its recent low on March 23.  It is down only about 14% this year — and is up from its levels of just 11 months ago.  There are answers as to why.  But that doesn’t take away the extremity of the juxtaposition between an economy in free fall and a stock market that is, in the scheme of things, doing just fine."

Attitude is a big factor in overcoming difficulties.  Muddling through is a start, but as the article goes on to tell us, it is important to pick yourself up.

Gloom and doom just are not the American way.  The music of the 1930s included mostly uplifting and happy songs.  For "Swing Time," the ultimate Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire musical, Jerome Kern and lyricist Dorothy Fields gave us "Pick Yourself Up," which was deployed when Rogers taught Astaire to dance. She sang:

Nothing's impossible I have found,
For when my chin is on the ground,
I pick myself up,
Dust myself off,
Start all over again.

And of course he miraculously learned to dance like Fred Astaire.

I will never dance like Fred Astaire, but I can have that pick myself up attitude.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff