Latvia's innovative economic strategy:
Hammered by economic woe, this former Soviet republic recently took a novel step to contain the crisis. Its counterespionage agency busted an economist for being too downbeat.
"All I did was say what everyone knows," says Dmitrijs Smirnovs, a 32-year-old university lecturer detained by Latvia's Security Police. The force is responsible for hunting down spies, terrorists and other threats to this Baltic nation of 2.3 million people and 26 banks.
Ah, if only the Bush administration had adopted this "Blame the Economists" policy, Paul Krugman would be cooling his heels at Guantanamo. On the other hand, if the Obama administration follows suit, we can expect them to round up the economics faculty at George Mason University.