The Baltic country of Latvia is struggling through the recession along with the rest of the world, but its leaders have taken an unusual approach to the situation. According to the Wall Street Journal, Latvia's Security Police recently detained economics lecturer Dmitrijs Smirnovs for two days for expressing pessimism about the current crisis.

Apparently, this was not the first foray by the Latvian police into the public discussion about economic prospects. Officials have been studying newspaper reports, chat room conversations, even text messages, for Negative Nellies violating the country's laws against spreading false or scurrilous info about the economy.

If such a law were passed in the U.S., whose head would go on the chopping block first? Certainly the Wall Street Journal is a wellspring of negativity. Fox and MSNBC are chronically aggrieved. I wouldn't want to be George Will or Rush Slimebaugh Limbaugh when the brownshirts start rounding up naysayers.

As a BloggingStocks writer, I might have to go underground myself. Just in case, I want to assure you that the economy is doing just fine; great, actually. Go buy oodles of stocks, Comrade.

Latvians take new approach to crisis: Detain gloomy economists originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.