If the attack ads between the Republican primary candidates seem negative now, we need only wait until the general election ramps up full court and speed to plunge to new depths of attacks on person and ideas. Our leadership and candidates for replacement seem bent on stressing the negative. Pessimism seems to trump optimism at every turn. Did you ever wonder why negative attacks are so effective, especially when we claim to prefer ideas, values, and optimism to characterize the public debate?

Where there was considerable unity among world leaders at the outset of the Great Recession, the latest economic retreat is preceded by worsening splits and schisms. The scant fiscal and monetary responses so far lack not only coordination, but real long-term effectiveness. At home, our government is divided into three incalcitrant ‘parties’ each defying leadership and each seemingly oblivious to the costs of delay. Across the pond the European Union teeters on the brink of not only recession, but potential disintegration. 

It has been a week of dimming hopes. More economists now believe the US will slip into recession over the next twelve months. As the president stumped across to country to sell his jobs bill to the American people, Congressional support quickly waned on both sides. And indications that Greece will default on its sovereign debt combined with the worsening undercapitalization of European banks stymie efforts by Germany and France to hold the Euro region together.

If you have any exposure at all to the US economy, whether you run a corporation or you are raising money for the school PTA, you have no doubt noticed a certain reservation among people to spend, invest, or give their money. August proved a tough month for the economy. Confidence crushers such as the debt ceiling debate, the unprecedented downgrade of US Treasuries from AAA to AA+ by Standard & Poor’s, a plunging stock market, an earthquake strong enough to suggest attack for many in DC and NY, and an east coast hurricane that literally quieted the “city that never sleeps” all fueled a growing sense of pessimism.