Cheer Up: Why the Recession is Beautiful!: Financial Times Deutschland

Worried about the economic crisis? Is your car being repossessed? Were you an investor in Bernie Madoff’s ponzie scheme? Then this is the article for you.

Andreas Theyssen, chief political editor of Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, recently penned this article of reasons to love the global economic downturn.

Theyssen writes in part:

“It’s really difficult to bear. Every day the same bad news: wobbly banks, massive rescue packages, sales slumps, bankruptcies, a diminishing GDP and worsening unemployment figures. And every piece of bad news is a little worse than the one before. And it is likely to continue until the middle of the year, the end of the year, or perhaps all the way into next year.”

This is no longer tolerable. This typically-German lust for prophesies of doom! That typically Teutonic inclination to see the glass half empty, although it’s still half full! This has got to stop! That is why we, right here and now, are going to open your eyes and show you the beautiful side of the world economic crisis. You deserve no less!”

By Andreas Theyssen

Translated By Ulf Behncke

January 6, 2008

Germany – Financial Times Deutschland – Original Article (German)

Everyone is whining about the global economic crisis. We do not. Here are six reasons why this crisis has a good side.

It’s really difficult to bear. Every day the same bad news: wobbly banks, massive rescue packages, sales slumps, bankruptcies, a diminishing GDP and worsening unemployment figures. And every piece of bad news is a little worse than the one before. And it is likely to continue until the middle of the year, the end of the year, or perhaps all the way into next year.

This is no longer tolerable. This typically-German lust for prophesies of doom! That typically Teutonic inclination to see the glass half empty, although it’s still half full! This has got to stop! That is why we, right here and now, are going to open your eyes and show you the beautiful side of the world economic crisis. You deserve no less!

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.

2 Responses to “Cheer Up: Why the Recession is Beautiful!: Financial Times Deutschland”

1. How to Land a Job During a Recession | Virtual Globes says:

   January 14, 2009 at 6:14 am

   [...] Cheer Up: Why the Recession is Beautiful!: Financial Times Deutschland [...]
2. careyrowland says:

   January 14, 2009 at 8:59 am

   Mr. Kern:
   Thank you for the link to Herr Theyssen's article. I appreciate his hopeful observation: “Perhaps this debate in the United States will end with the realization that good and evil don't automatically correlate with origin or religious affiliation.” As a moderate American, I would like to affirm his stated principle that “any schadenfreude is definitely misplaced.” This acceptance should apply to all people, be they guilt-ridden Germans, cocky Englishman, bullish Americans, nitpicking Chinese bureaucrats, Jewish bankers, Iranian politicians, Palestinian extremists, Israeli soldiers, French Muslims, Mexican laborors, Indian help-line advisors, Iraqi moderates or tech-illiterate citizens of the world who have no clue of what is now happening.
   In the days ahead, a general tendency will mount up in humankind to resort to “schadenfreude.” Some would have us believe that we are all lost on an island called earth somewhere in the universe, clutching at each others' ethnic and national throats, blameshifting and searching for scapegoats. In that complex “accounting” that Herr Theyssen mentioned, we Americans see (as other world citizens do) the lesson that Deutschland's history provides us: When times get tough, people look for someone to blame. And in their distress, humans may be duped into following the amoral opportunist (Nazi or otherwise) who is willing to place that blame irresponsibly.
   The true moderate, however, understands this principle, which originated in Hebrew scripture, but was later affirmed by the German, Martin Luther: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We need to put the blame on ourselves, collectively and individually.
   We are all responsible for this mess. That's the true glass half-full perspective: we are, each one of us, responsible for his/her own life. As we are each willing to take responsibility for our decisions and actions, we are also each held accountable to survey the landscape for opportunities to transcend the titanic shipwreck that is still ahead of us.
   We are all, as another Martin Luther (King) pointed out, “God's children.”
   Carey Rowland, author of Glass half-Full