Economists versus semantics

[sigma7]

I've been trying to stay away from the whole death-of-capitalism thing, but one sentence, one word today amid the statistics and eschatological economics just floored me.

"I'm just watching the dollar self-implode," said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com.

...Again, Large Hadron Collider and quantum singularities aside, is it possible to implode in such a way that is not self-implosion?

Comments

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

The Fat Man atomic device used external implosion. A shell of explosives to make the plutonium core implode.

Submarines that are catastrophically damaged implode from the pressure of the water outside.

[aulayan.livejournal.com]

Many demolitions are done by implosion rather than explosion.

And the dollar's imploding? It's stronger than it was a few months ago...

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Perhaps causing your own implosion, rather than having it be externally begun?

I have no idea, I'm just trying to salvage the statement. ::sigh::

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

I think, given the circumstances, we can forgive economists for not being pedantic with their semantics. Which would be a good name for a song, I think.

And icon lurve. I think I know what I'll be doing at work today.

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

Feel free to yoink, the maker is in the keyword. It amuses me, because it functions both as an "oh NO the computer EXPLODED" icon and a "Oh Livejournal, help me!" icon.

[jateke.livejournal.com]

I really just don't buy it because it's intrinsically an intransitive verb. (Hmm, another song title?)

Yeah, you can do some fancy semantic footwork and make it transitive, à la the Fat Man, submarines, and demolitions, but without the fooferaw, we all know it's intransitive. (Well, we should all know, currency strategists.)