by Laura Conaway

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain told a crowd in Florida today that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong." Coming amid news that Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch were joining the ranks of used-to-be's, McCain's analysis was"delighting" to Democrats and puzzling to at least some voters.

Christine wrote in:

When I hear McCain say "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," what does that mean — and is it true?
 

Leaving aside the issue of truth, I posed Christine's question about the fundamentals to the McCain campaign. Out came a release from Orlando, Fla., that explains what the senator means when he talks about "fundamentals." In the text, McCain says,

"Our workers are the most innovative, the hardest-working, the best-skilled, most productive, most competitive in the world. That's the American worker. And my opponents may disagree, but those fundamentals — the American worker and their innovation, their entrepreneurship, the small business, those are the fundamentals of America, and I think they're strong. But they are being threatened today. Those fundamentals are being threatened today because of the greed and corruption that some engaged in on Wall Street, and we have got to fix it."

Certainly American innovation counts for a lot in the global economy. An engineer here can patent and protect ideas, for instance, which makes innovation worthy of investment. As for the rest, economists argue back and forth about the relative strength of much more easily measured fundamentals — markers like the dollar strength against other currencies, the personal savings rate, inflation, gross domestic product. FWIW, this weekend the New York Times featured this headline: Economy to Entrepreneurs: Turn Back.