I’ve coined a few successful turns of phrase over the years, but none, I think, as successful as the confidence fairy — a term I used to refer to the belief that things like austerity in the face of depression would actually be expansionary, because of … CONFIDENCE.

In its original usage, the phrase was aimed at people like Jean-Claude Trichet, who preached the wonders of expansionary austerity. But reading Matt O’Brien on Romney’s Boca Moment, I suddenly realized that it has a domestic application too.

As O’Brien notes, here’s how Romney described his economic strategy:

If it looks like I’m going to win, the markets will be happy. If it looks like the president’s going to win, the markets should not be terribly happy. It depends of course which markets you’re talking about, which types of commodities and so forth, but my own view is that if we win on November 6th, there will be a great deal of optimism about the future of this country. We’ll see capital come back and we’ll see — without actually doing anything — we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.

[Emphasis added]

In effect, Romney was saying, “I am the confidence fairy!”

So, how’s it going? The perceived odds of a Romney win have dropped sharply in the past few weeks:

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So has the stock market tanked? Well, no — sort of the opposite:

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Hmm. So maybe Romney can’t revive the economy just through his personal awesomeness?