It's only Wednesday and it has been a fraught week. In fact,
I am totally ready for the weekend. In
just the past three days, we have watched as:
Obama conducted an entire televised press conference without
once accepting a question from a reporter from a major newspaper. Personally I think this reveals more about
Obama's weaknesses than those associated with the newspaper industry. (Meanwhile, based on his performance Tuesday
night, our President simultaneously started a rumor that there are actually two
Obamas, one an inspirational leader who Michelle sometimes takes out for big
public occasions, and the other who is a tax accountant with the charisma of a
tube sock.) Meanwhile, Obama's economic
crash test dummy Tim Geithner testified on the Hill winning kudos from the
market but gradually grimmer and grimmer assessments from economists and
thoughtful writers like the FT's Martin Wolf.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to Mexico even as
Obama framed that country's drug violence as a top concern of the U.S. and
hearings on the subject were a highlight on Capitol Hill. Personally I am worried about Secretary
Clinton and it's not all that Mexican violence that I feel puts her at
risk. Rather, if history is any
indicator, the real danger she faces is associated with the fact that she
currently has a higher approval rating than the President. (If she doubts me on this, she should call
Colin Powell and see how that worked out for him.)
Housing starts were up, markets were up and yet somehow it
did nothing to tame the throbbing headache and sinking sensation in the pit of
the stomach that has been reported by well, everyone everywhere. It's gotten to the point that I'm comforted
by those reports of a killer asteroid
hurtling toward the planet because it looks the giant Advil we all need. (Just kidding. There is no asteroid. You are still going to have to figure out how
to survive during retirement on the $11.26 left in your 401-K.)
In other developments in astro-physics, black
hole of charisma Gordon Brown went to the European Parliament and was gutted
and filleted like a trout by a British MEP named Daniel Hannan (which you can
view yourself thanks to the wonders of YouTube). And speaking of YouTube, the Chinese
government once again made the world's most populous country seem very small
indeed by blocking the site after a video the Chinese assert was a fake seemed
to show a Chinese policeman beating a Tibetan demonstrator to death. Finally on the foreign policy front, the
seductive Bibi Netanyahu managed to get Ehud Barak (who once infiltrated Syria
in a drag...draw your own conclusions) and the Labor Party to clamber aboard his
coalition's bandwagon, thus giving it more diversity and political credibility. (It has been hinted that should Barak ever
again appear in a dress he could face prosecution and perhaps physical danger
from UN High Commissioner for Crimes Against Fashion Tim Gunn.)
Yet for all these things, or perhaps in spite of them, we
may well look back on this week and determine that the most important thing
that happened was that Ratan Tata, Indian mega-mogul, fulfilled what many
thought was an impossible personal ambition when he launched his new $2,200 Nano
microcar. It is, as far as an
"everyman's car" precisely what the Ford Model T hoped to be, but of course,
for most of the planet, was not. It
truly opens the door to car ownership for hundreds of millions of people. If it is as successful as predicted, and
cars, being produced at a rate of 1,000,000 per year according to Tata, are
back-ordered into 2010, it will undoubtedly signal a boom in an entirely new
category of vehicles. Chevrolet plans to
launch a micro car next year...if there is a Chevrolet next year. And while the prospect of the proliferation
of cars like the Nano creates new challenges regarding pollution (although Tata
says it has lower emissions than a motorcycle), because of their light weight
and the limited speed or horsepower seen as necessary for such vehicles, the
category could become an area in which alternative energy options are
particularly effective. Even without
this though, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary Yvo
de Boer said, "I am not concerned about it (the Tata Nano) because people in
India have the same aspirational rights to own cars as people elsewhere in the
world."
The world being what it is, of course, today, two days after
the Nano launch, Standard and Poors downgraded Tata Motors due to the fact that
they didn't feel even high demand for the vehicle could offset the company's
other problems. This is a good news bad
news story. Because if the global
economy continues to circle the drain, there may be increased demand for the
Nano in many formerly developed countries. Like ours. In fact, Tata plans a
U.S. launch of the vehicle in three years. Tata is clearly a visionary. I
wonder what he knows that we don't know.
Ritam Banerjee/Getty Images
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