” the human toll caused by the widespread death and destruction of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami was worse than the toll on the economy “
Even for Kudlow, this is a remarkably stupid remark, on so many levels...
Not least of which, is the fact that the economic toll is, as yet, unknown and unknowable, and won’t be tallied, or even approxomated, until the ripple effects - ‘aftershocks’, if you will - play themselves out over time in the World Economy at large....
A pet peeve is everyone jumping on a statement when a person said nothing wrong. But they will include this in his obituary, I’m sure.
Whichever way he meant it is not offensive. If he acknowledged the human toll is WORSE but said at least we can be grateful the economic harm won’t be so bad, he did nothing to diminish the importance of the human toll.
If he meant we can be grateful the human toll is less than the economic toll, likewise.
Inartful but really meaningless, and he immediately said he made a mistake.