Asymmetrical Information

UK readers would know that a hitler mustache would be much shorter. Some of them might posit that it's supposed to be a Groucho Marx mustache, but I suspect that many of them simply won't get it...

But it does say 'Got Oil?' on Cheney's forehead, which indicates to me that this is a 'Got Milk?' reference. Even so, it's a bit overvoard.

Evidently, the images on the cover come from an anti-globalization protest that was held in the US (Seattle?). Thus, the original image may have been based on the "Got Milk?" ads -- but that doesn't explain why a British editor thought it appropriate for the cover of Krugman's book.

It's a floor wax *and* a desert topping!
The slogan shows it was inspired by the milk ads, but those use a full-width milk-mustache. Everybody knows who a toothbrush-width mustache is supposed to signify.

perhaps the mustache is a revelation of Krugman's actual involvement in the creation of that cover--after all, HE would be aware of that ad campaign.

"It's a floor wax *and* a desert topping!
The slogan shows it was inspired by the milk ads, but those use a full-width milk-mustache. Everybody knows who a toothbrush-width mustache is supposed to signify."

I have this image in my head, one or two years ago some hippie is painting a huge poster in Seattle:

Girlfriend: Honey, come to bed!

Hippie: No, I must finish painting the mil mustache!

Girlfriend (walks over to him, accidently kicks can of black paint over)

Hippie: Damm! Now I can't make the full mustache. Well whose ever going to notice!

It's a paper-thin veneer to hide an obvious Hitler reference. Or--in the immortal words of Rupert Giles--"The subtext is rapidly becoming text." A cheap shot to appeal to the puppet molesters in Europe.

puppet molesters?

I'm in New Zealand, and I understood the 'Got Milk' reference. The book's about America, so American references on the cover aren't inappropriate in other countries.

And am I looking at the same cover as everyone else? There's no way that's a Hitler moustache.

It's clearly a reference to the "Got Milk" campaign. Period. Peter, you're looking at the same cover as everyone else, but they don't understand it.

I agree the mustache is supposed to be a Got Milk mustache; what it's doing on a UK book is the real question.

With all the talk about Cheney's mustache, I think we're missing a bigger change.

The US edition is called: The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century

Amazon says the UK edition is called: The Great Unravelling: From Boom to Bust in Three Short Years

But the UK cover says: The Great Unravelling: From Boom to Bust in Three Scandalous Years

The whole "boom to bust" thing is especially ridiculous coming from an economist. And it's wrong on so many levels! It's absurd to blame it on a president, and going from boom to bust can be done in three weeks, let alone years. And the economy was in recession when Bush took office, and is recovering now (if not as robustly as we might like). And the book was published in September 2003, which is just over 2.5 years, after Bush took office. "From Bust to Partial-Recovery in Two-and-a-half Years..." Hmm, doesn't have much of a ring to it...

And then at some point, someone (a nameless UK editor no doubt) throws in the word "scandalous", which strikes me as pretty silly, too. I guess you can claim there have been scandals if you use that label for Enron, or the California blackouts, or the Northeast blackout, or the Afghanistan war, or the Iraqi/African uranium claims. But these are all pretty distant from the White House, or not usually called scandals.

We Americans know a scandal when we see one, after 8 years of the previous administration. Which is probably why the word doesn't appear on the US cover.

"It's a floor wax *and* a desert topping!
The slogan shows it was inspired by the milk ads, but those use a full-width milk-mustache. Everybody knows who a toothbrush-width mustache is supposed to signify."

Actually looking carefully at the picture reveals it to be the milk mustache. It is over his entire lip. The Hitler mustache covers only the center of the lip.

Clearly the cover is partisan and sensationalist but that's not exactly unusual for the UK where politicians are not given brownie points for being 'civil' (which means trying to be as bland sounding as possible).

Doesn't the Cheney oil-mustache thing come from AdBusters?

Etcheverry, I did find the same Cheney picture at the Adbusters site (here).

I checked around for images from the real Got Milk campaign. Here's one of a surprisingly, um, buxom Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) with a milk mustache.

Comparing the two, the Cheney mustache is taller and too square. It's not actually a toothbrush mustache (I think that's what they were called), but it's a lot closer than Buffy's mustache, even ignoring the color. As you'd expect, the milk guys went out of their way to make the milk mustaches look nothing like Hitler's mustache.

While it's a puzzle why Dick Cheney might drink oil, at least it makes some sense in context with Adbusters. Why it would end up on Krugman's book in the UK is another question entirely. (Presumably his publisher handled any copyright issues with the picture.)

Probably the reason it would end up on a cover in the UK is that AdBusters isn't a publication whose audience is necessarily American. Even if it were, you have to remember that the anti-globo movement is tight-knit and international in nature. The American anti-globos who read AdBusters are sure to spread anything they like quickly around the world, allowing people in other countries (like the UK) to become familiarized with AdBusters images, if they haven't already seen them for themselves, and then use them at protests, etc.

Probably the reason it would end up on a cover in the UK is that AdBusters isn't a publication whose audience is necessarily American. Even if it were, you have to remember that the anti-globo movement is tight-knit and international in nature. The American anti-globos who read AdBusters are sure to spread anything they like quickly around the world, allowing people in other countries (like the UK) to become familiarized with AdBusters images, if they haven't already seen them for themselves, and then use them at protests, etc.

The contortions people will put themselves into to accuse Krugman of Argumentum Ad Hitlerum is amazing.

"The contortions people will put themselves into to accuse Krugman of Argumentum Ad Hitlerum is amazing."

And the contortions that certain other people will put themselves through to insist that he isn't are all too predictable.

It doesn't look like a Hitler moustache, therefore it's probably not a Hitler reference.

Yes, the response is, technically, "all too predictable".

So uh, what's the hip name for this form of masturbation?

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