When "less bad" does not mean better

Has anyone really stopped to think about this whole "less bad" logic that has been sweeping the country after a number of economic indicators shifted from a near-vertical rate of decent to something less steep in the last month or so?

Just yesterday morning in the WSJ Ahead of the Tape column, it was spotted again when Tom Lauricella wrote, "Meanwhile, on the economic front the catchphrase in the last few weeks has been 'less bad,' meaning that the pace of the economic decline is lessening."

No! Less bad means that things are getting better. The graphic to the right makes that point rather clearly. If conditions are still declining, things are getting "more bad", not "less bad".

Perhaps Inigo Montoya put it best when he famously quipped "You keep using those words. I do not think it means what you think it means."