Clear sailing on the high seas of the whirlwind

Source: Tom Tomorrow, This Modern World, via Salon

The outcome [of the current financial situation] essentially depends on the ability of the Obama administration to rejuvenate capitalism’s “animal spirits” by substituting the benevolent fist of government for the now invisible hand of Adam Smith.

Bill Gross in “8 really, really scary predictions”, CNN/Fortune, 11 Dec 2008

Update: We thought we had a winner. But the competition is fierce.

And what I want to do is make sure we have jobs for these workers and we have first-class American automobile companies, and we’re not going to do it with the barnacles of unionism wrapped around their necks.

Sen. Jim DeMint on All Things Considered, 10 Dec 2008; quoted in “Republicans hate unions so much…”, Brilliant at Breakfast 12 Dec 2008

Has Sen. DeMint (from South Carolina) ever seen a barnacle? Maybe he means anchovies.

Addendum: I now know where those animal spirits come from. See 13 Feb 2009