September 01, 2010

Right Wing Bubble Heads

This is choice. Apparently the same right-wing economic pundits who are now telling us that the stimulus was a huge mistake, and that we need to reverse course and pay down the debt in the middle of a recession, are the same guys who who were telling us that there was no housing bubble--that the free market was humming along just fine, thank you. Follow the link for the whole list of suspects.

The housing bubble has precipitated a severe, and possibly catastprophic, economic crisis, so I thought it would be useful to put together a list of pundits and experts who were dead-wrong on the housing bubble. They were the enablers, and deserve to be held accountable. People also need to know (or be reminded of) which pundits/experts should never be listened to again. But most importantly, I have time to do this kind of thing now.

The list includes only pundits and (supposed) experts. That means the list doesn't include policymakers such as Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, because however wrong they may have been, policymakers—and especially Fed chairmen—are undeniably constrained in what they can say publicly. I strongly suspect that both Greenspan and Bernanke honestly believed that there was no housing bubble, but alas, we'll never know for sure. The list also doesn't include pundits/experts who were wrong only about the fallout of the collapse of the housing bubble—that is, the extent to which the collapse of the housing bubble would harm the economy.

Many of the names on the list won't shock anyone, I'm sure. And FWIW, a few of the pundits seemed to deny the existence of the housing bubble simply because Paul Krugman argued that there was a housing bubble, and they absolutely hate Krugman. Unfortunately (for our economy), Krugman was right—again.

The list is a work in progress (though I've been reasonably thorough in my research), so feel free to suggest other people who should go on the list. So without further ado, here's the list:

Posted by stevemack at 09:01 PM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2010

The Wicked Paradox Redux (Repost)

If there’s any truth to the old adage that religion and (liberal, democratic) politics don’t mix, it isn’t because they are polar opposites—an ideological oil reacting against a metaphysical water. Rather, it’s because they are, more or less, alienated kindred vying for the same space in the human imagination. It is not difficult to see why: religious experience and democratic politics make overlapping—and often competing—claims to the deepest meanings we attach to our humanity. First, both make a sacred obsession of the operations of individual conscience. Whether it is in the prayer tower or the voting booth, each pivots on a private, solemn, even mystical moment when the individual summons all the resources of their inner being in a single act of “self-transcendence.” Second, both religion and democracy draw the individual into a larger cosmic or social order—then define obligations that go along with one’s place in that order. Both, in other words, offer a vision of personal identity that is derived from beliefs about how we should relate to everything around us. The struggle between the spiritual and political forces of our imagination is older than such things as red states, the Christian Coalition, or the Moral Majority. It’s been a continuing drama for nearly four hundred years of American history. But following the 2004 reelection of George W. Bush, the old drama acquired a new cast of characters and a snappy new production.

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Posted by stevemack at 05:44 AM | Comments (0)

The "Decline" of Public Intellectuals? (repost)

Partisan politics (mostly) aside, Barack Obama is an intellectual's dream leader. The erudite and cosmopolitan writer who became a real life philosopher-king, Obama exists seemingly to test the proposition that intelligence and a cool reason that does not so much displace passion as it does harness it, are suitable tools for democratic leadership. If it's not lookin' good so far it may have something to do less with Obama's talents than the way we as a nation process the work of intellectuals. Consider this comment, originally posted on August 14, 2007:

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Posted by stevemack at 05:33 AM | Comments (0)