From Bloomberg. This fits Michael Kinsley's definition of a gaffe: When a public figure tells the truth. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill tells the truth about Washington's "strong dollar" policy, which Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke says is really a weak dollar policy wearing a different label.

``When I was Secretary of the Treasury I was not supposed to say anything but `strong dollar, strong dollar,''' O'Neill said today. ``I argued then and would argue now that the idea of a strong dollar policy is a vacuous notion.''

``The markets actually have control over those relationships. When people say strong dollar, if they don't mean that `we believe intervention can work and we're prepared to intervene,' then `strong dollar' is ridiculous.''

``It implies in it that somehow we have the ability to manage the relationship between the value of the U.S. dollar and other currencies around the world,'' O'Neill, now a special adviser to Blackstone Group LP, today said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.