I couldn’t help smiling at the latest euphemism for the world’s economic problems: “The economy and the industry are in the process of resetting to a new baseline”. If you didn’t know we were going through the world’s worst recession in living memory (if you’ve been alive for less than 80 years, at least), you could be forgiven for thinking things were ticking along quite nicely, and the captains of industry had got together in a little huddle and decided to redraw a few graphs, but there was really nothing much to worry about. Perhaps Intel CEO Paul Otellini's comment was meant to be taken ironically, though I rather doubt it. Quarterly results announcements are not normally a venue for dry humour. But we take every ray of sunshine we can get these days, especially in the midst of a cloudy, cold, damp British winter. So thanks, Paul, you’ve set us up nicely for the weekend. As thousands more people collect their redundancy cheques we can rest assured that as soon as you’ve reset your baseline “growth will resume” and everything will be back to normal. If only it really was a laughing matter. Twitter: www.twitter.com/dmercer15 Client Reading: IFA 2008: Internet and 3D Offer Hope During Europe's CE Recession