I am sure I will not be the only one who draws this parallel. But I suspect it is a classic illustration of why credibility matters in both politics and economics.

George Bush on the US economy, October 2008: “I have heard that people’s attitudes are beginning to change from a period of intense concerns – I would call it near panic – to being more relaxed.”

George Bush on the war in Iraq, May 2003: “The Battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror.”

Mind you, he may have learned from experience and will heed the advice of the Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and go for the economic surge option early.

But however much faith you put in President Bush’s comments and however successful the remedies taken prove to be, there will remain a very long running and most likely acrimonious debate on how we got into this “war on the economy” in the first place.