Yet what most Americans recall about the meltdown are the ill-chosen words of Malaysia's then-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

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These are nice gimmicky buzz-words, but what do they mean?

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The state of Wyoming, which is actually a very big producer of wind power, is now actually considering taxing -- in other words, taking away what you guys are providing with your tax break.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing

What today has revealed is that - as the contradictory nature of those words suggest - panics are rarely slow, steady and controlled, particularly if a minister goes off his script and the media latches onto a narrative about a government that is making mistakes and looking out of touch.

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His view is that benefit claimants will be far better off if they are unable to buy what he calls "NEDD items"- things that were, in his words, "non-essential, desirable but often damaging".

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Certainly, Research In Motion says that they are on the brink of developing the technology for what they call a work-around, in other words, saying even if this gets blacked out under the court order, BlackBerry users would not be technologically hampered.

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In other words, Washington is bleeding internally while the doctors in Congress are squabbling over what Band-Aid to put over the bullet wound.

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But they are unlikely to be impressed with what they see as fine words from the West unmatched by real short-term commitments.

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