London-to-Phoenix-to-Washington does more than throw one’s body clock into a spin. It is disorienting. The gloom in London is thicker than the fogs of yesteryear, and the prime minister is trying to avoid culpability for his nation’s economic woes by blaming its and indeed the world’s problems on the United States, while assuring the nation that he has the entire world financial crisis under control. Or would, if only the Saudis and the Chinese would cough up billions in cash to match the few farthings Brown has available to contribute to a coordinated global stimulus package.
In Phoenix, the home of John McCain and many of his very conservative supporters, the gloom seems even deeper. Not only are the voters there attempting to adjust to a president-elect who shares neither their social values (many I spoke with are buying guns because they expect Barack Obama to make such purchases illegal) nor their economic philosophy, but they are living on the sharp edge of the emerging recession. The Arizona economy depends heavily on the real estate market, and to say that market is depressed is to understate the perceived problem. The construction industry is so slack that many of the Mexicans who came across the border to work on construction products can’t find even low-paid work, and so are headed home.
