"As an overall policy," he said, "if we weren't competing with other states, it would always be better to lower everything across the board".
"Down there," he said, "you have lower overhead, lower taxes, lower occupancy costs, lower labor costs, lower everything".
Everything is lowered, cut, dropped, reduced, slashed to ribbons.
It feels as though Cathal and I had spent that time in the shadow world, as though we had been quietly lowered into the dark, everything familiar missing, and nothing we did or said could change this.
Today, however, the internet has lowered the barriers to everything: international protests can be co-ordinated through Facebook groups, blogs have removed the printing and distribution barriers from publishing, and a growing suite of online hacking tools have made it possible for a 19-year-old kid to embarrass the CIA.
In the meantime, some people want to continue to protest, to hold SCAF's feet to the fire ; others are fed up with the ongoing disruption (Egypt's debt rating was lowered two days ago) and want everything to go back to normal.
Everything was lowered to create a sound, and nothing was to be used to distract from that sound.
It's the voice of a tired 65-year-old, who for many years "lowered her gaze and accepted everything", as she puts it.
But for Nafta's supporters, the accord, which lowered or eliminated tariffs on everything from agricultural goods to auto parts, still left all three nations better off than they would have been without it.
Many readers named Obama as the person they continue to admire most, citing a litany of accomplishments, everything from a lowered unemployment rate to landmark health care legislation.
