OMG, I agree with Ben Stein!

[edhopper]

I pretty much go along with almost everything he is saying here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/business/23every.html?scp=1&sq=ben%20stein&st=cse

It must be the End of Days :-)

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Ben Stein has no ideas that are his own. Someone must be coaching him. n/t

[David Zephyr]

2. Stein is a work in progress and there's clearly something happening with him.

I applaud it. I welcome it.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

4. Who knows what it is.

Maybe he has to sell off one of his three houses. Or maybe he's genuinely disgusted by neoliberalism and the culture it has fostered. Or maybe he's laying the groundwork for a new book.

As my father always said, it's easy to be a doomsayer when the sky is falling. I'll be interested to see if he returns to his old ways when this all sorts out.

[David Zephyr]

14. He spoke out agains McCain's choice of Palin when he made it.

I think that Ben Stein has been very uncomfortable with the entire uber right wing cult for quite a while. He along with Kathleen Parker and a host of other conservatives found themselves being boxed in more and more by religious fundamentalism mixed with xenophobia, homophobia and militant nationalism and even more by anti-environmentalism and anti-science.

This election, the failed war in Iraq and the economic meltdown of unregulated cronyism have now given a lot of Republicans the excuse to bail out once and for all.

It mirrors the collapse in the numbers of registered Republicans.

[bigtree]

3. wealthy folks watching their fortunes vanish always sound enlightened

. . . in their panic.

[Warpy]

5. No shit, the awful truth begins to dawn on the ones with active

brain cells that they were conned along with the rest of us by a bunch of jokers who played on their greed to gain power.

This mess wasn't planned. It's just the inevitable outcome of a bunch of rich fools getting everything they thought they wanted.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Indeed!

[Boojatta]

6. Some specifics...

At this point, the lending sector is so panicked —largely from the government’s inconsistent behavior and failure to rescue Lehman Brothers — that it is frozen. Not totally, but way too much for ease of lending and maybe even for the survival of a robust economy.

What reason is there to believe that refraining from rescuing Lehman Brothers has caused panick?

There is virtually no dose of stimulus that is too much in an economy as shellshocked as today’s.

Aren't there two different issues: the kind of stimulus and the amount of stimulus?

Closely related is the question of the Big Three automakers. To let them fail or go through bankruptcy would be a mistake horrifyingly similar to allowing Lehman to fail, and in some ways worse.

Aren't there a lot of small businesses that fail? Why is it worse for one large business to fail than for a large number of small businesses to fail?

To add to the patient’s woes by allowing a vital organ to fail — in this case, the auto industry — is just plain foolish.

Are "the Big Three automakers" and "the auto industry" synonymous phrases?

[edhopper]

8. Well Boj,

At this point, the lending sector is so panicked —largely from the government’s inconsistent behavior and failure to rescue Lehman Brothers — that it is frozen. Not totally, but way too much for ease of lending and maybe even for the survival of a robust economy.

What reason is there to believe that refraining from rescuing Lehman Brothers has caused panick?


It's pretty well accepted by almost the entire economic community that the failure to respond to Lehman was the catalyst to the crisis.



There is virtually no dose of stimulus that is too much in an economy as shellshocked as today’s.

Aren't there two different issues: the kind of stimulus and the amount of stimulus?


He explains the Keynesian stimulus in the article.




Closely related is the question of the Big Three automakers. To let them fail or go through bankruptcy would be a mistake horrifyingly similar to allowing Lehman to fail, and in some ways worse.

Aren't there a lot of small businesses that fail? Why is it worse for one large business to fail than for a large number of small businesses to fail?


2 million plus jobs!




To add to the patient’s woes by allowing a vital organ to fail — in this case, the auto industry — is just plain foolish.

Are "the Big Three automakers" and "the auto industry" synonymous phrases?

The big three ARE the domestic auto industry. The rest is foreign companies with plants here.


Asking for an explanation of what error I have made is not the same as denying that I have made an error.

See how easy it is to explain exactly what you mean in clear English.

[Boojatta]

9. More questions

It's pretty well accepted by almost the entire economic community that the failure to respond to Lehman was the catalyst to the crisis.

What is "the entire economic community" and what guarantees that the majority of it isn't wrong?

2 million plus jobs!

If each of a million small businesses employs two people, then those one million small businesses collectively employ two million people. Under what circumstances would it be appropriate for Washington to bail out a million small businesses?

The big three ARE the domestic auto industry. The rest is foreign companies with plants here.

Earlier you referred to jobs. If there are Americans working in auto plants in America, then the auto industry that employs Americans consists of more than just the big three. Why does it matter where the headquarters of the auto companies are?

[edhopper]

11. I appreciate the questions

but don't have time to respond.
Anyone else care to chime in?

[Kalyke]

13. How about this: I'll never be able to own another car.

Ergo, I won't purchase one. I don't want a foreign car. I'll just keep repairing mine. Good for the repair industry - sucky for the auto industry. I'm not alone. American car buyers are extremely loyal.

[Schema Thing]

10. He's been saying "America should tax my type" for some time now.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. Blind Squirrel

His conclusions are acceptable, but his earlier explanation of how recession happen is simple minded nonsense. That latter part, however, is par for the course. Ben is nowhere near as bright as he thinks he is.
The Professor