Econonspeak: Toward the end of the twentieth and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, economists developed a language that distorted the reality of economics and replaced it with distortions and garbled allusions to economics and economic history. This became known as Econonspeak. It rapidly spread to court economists who found it useful in manipulating those who understood little economics. Eco-non-speak: a language using economics terms that is non-speak, that is, it provides no useful or, more usually, faulty economic concepts to the listener.

Fine examples of econonspeak are provided by what at that time was called macroeconomics (now regarded as little short of witchcraft.) Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner provide many instances of econonspeak.

It was Geithner who said "The President's plan is meant to jumpstart our economy making a down payment on longterm economic growth." This sentence shows the ability of econonspeak to confound the listener, while providing incoherent phrases that mimic real thought. We have here a mixing of the three metaphors of starting an engine, making a down payment on an investment, and improvement in economic income. There are in reality no connections among these three elements, which is what makes this a classic and beautiful example of econonspeak.

Geithner, a prime practitioner of econonspeak, used it to rewrite history: "Conservative and liberal economists agree that short-term deficit spending is necessary in order to stimulate the economy. Looking back on the 1930s, I share the belief of most economists that we were effective in ending the Great Depression only after very substantial fiscal and monetary policy stimulus, along with a comprehensive strategy to stabilize the banking system."

While none of this is factual or even makes any economic sense, its power of expression and seeming continuity shows the ability of econonspeak to capture the mind of the untutored listener.

In the following example, Geithner employs the jargon of "spend out rates" while cleverly using the title of a policy measure to suggest that government spending will create economic demand: "...the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will lead to the faster spend out rates that are needed to re-start economic demand."

Many critics regard this as econonspeak at its finest. However, the writer believes that Ben Bernanke may well take the honors at that period, and of course no one can deny that Alan Greenspan successfully employed econonspeak to great advantage.