While I’m not a big Nader fan (that is, not at all), he hits one out of the park today in this appearance on MSNBC where he makes fun of James K. Glassman’s “Dow 36,000″ book that came out right before the market tumbled in the early 2000s. Glassman is currently an Undersecretary in the State Dept. but before that he was a senior fellow at AEI and the force behind Tech Central Station, a clearinghouse for lobbyist disinformation that had Glenn Reynolds writing for them.
Please tell me what pwn means. It’s not something I’ve seen in the UK.
Pwn
Bloody heck Oliver, that’s one comprehensive answer! With an illustration too! Thanks
Doesn’t McCain have the other tool responsible for that “Dow 36,000″ book on his economic team?
Meh. Fish in a barrel.
This book was definitely wrong but did point out some very interesting and ominous trends. (Yes, I have read it and yes I do think it has lessons.)
The basic premise is that the market is essentially a function of demographic trends. When people move through various stages of their life they spend in different, predictable ways. Empty nesters tend to be major consumer spenders as their income is highest and expenses lowest. It in part explains why this was a robust period for consumerism. But in 2009, all of those baby boomers will retire and this is in Glassman’s view the beginning of a recessionary period. He was wrong about the market “trend,” but the economics of the argument are actually fairly interesting.
And Nader is still a boob.
Calvin: Yep. One of the
authorsbuffoons is a top economic advisor to McCain.[...] Glassman now works at the State Department. HT Oliver Willis [...]
Glassman’s total BS. Nader means well and Democrats should have followed him instead of fought him. If Gore had listened to one tenth of Nader’s argument and followed up on maybe one twentieth of it, he’d have won the Presidency. Democrats need to stop placating Oligarchs. Like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer inverably do.
Reading about similarities between the Great Depression and this one oncoming probable Depression: there were massive income disparities which began before the Depression with workers and farmers earning just barely enough to stay alive even in the midst of ‘growth’…and then when a downturn hits…consumers stop spending…leading to a spiral downwards in lack of demand. Differences in responses now though the Govt. knows better to spend money and keep the wheels of commerce greased. Unfortunately, giving Wall Street Banks money doesn’t guarantee that consumers will spend money….as the last 8 years have seen a drop in worker’s incomes compared to the massive increase of wealth in the top 1 percent. That’s why Obama’s tax cuts for ordinary people and necessary increases in taxes for the upper one percent are necessary…as the wealth hasn’t ‘trickled’ down for some time now.
Average people need both a supply of cash…and that will build demand for goods and services that are ‘affordable’ not more Credit. The reasons for much use of credit is that it was easy and that people thought their earnings would increase…however, for the last eight years incomes have fallen behind even during a ‘recovery’. Thank You, GW Bush and the Republicans!
not sure if one can properly pronounce “pwned”. I am thinking of either a pawn shop item or a prawn. With more and more of us communicating via keyboards/IM….spoken language is maybe anachronistic?