White House Economist Austan Goolsbee Gets Another Free Pass
It's very late and this clip struck a nerve. I am forced everyday to repeat a harrowing and debilitating existence, not completely unlike that of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. The stories never change, the corruption never stops, and I move closer to insanity and an early death. So I swallow the pain each and every f*cking day and move a step closer to a straightjacket and an invitation to the psych ward. I've had enough. The rest of this story is on the inside and there will be profanity. I apologize but I seem to have hit a breaking point. So consider yourself warned, and if you don't like it, then just don't click.
I wanted to title this one 10 minutes of supreme fucking bullshit with White House economist and CEA advisor Austan Goolsbee. The discussion is decent I suppose, but Lois Romano is an irreconcilable failure. Where do they get these interviewers? She doesn't push Goolsbee on a single point, yet she gushes praise and most tellingly, with so many relevant questions still to be asked, she turns the discussion to US Magazine and Jon & Kate Plus Eight.
In a microcosm, Lois Romano represents everything that is wrong with America. She can't even go 9 minutes without bringing up the cultural equivalent of American Idol. Excuse me, but who in their right mind cares about Jon & Kate.
Except that's precisely the problem; because apparently a lot of people care. The greatest heist in the history of the free world is happening under our noses as trillions of bad private debt from the banks are being transferred onto the backs of future generations, and the nation (or a substantial component of its citizenry) is more concerned with reality tv.
If you aren't paying attention, you should face a Generational Theft Council and have your citizenship revoked. The rest of us, who are fighting these battles for your kids, are sick and tired of dragging your pneumatic asses with us. Wake up and learn what's happening in Washington and on Wall Street, or we're gonna jettison your morally-bankrupt, intellectually-vacuous souls to Venezuela, where Chavez will put you to work on a culturally rehabilitative peanut farm.
On your way to Peanutville, don't let the door slam you in your giant loser ass Ms. Romano.
A transcript of this interview can be found HERE
Oct 1, 2009 at 4:35 AM
Reader Comments (19)
http://www.jeffjacoby.com/6344/the-myth-of-the-underpaid-public-employee
Pretty astonishing numbers...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aaZTaeysFJPY
Romano didn't ask him about this...just one of many topics she could have brought up...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/30/goldman-sachs-in-ivanity_n_304185.html
Very, Very Interesting...
For me, reading End the Fed, Meltdown, Economics in One Lesson, Crisis and Leviathan, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and New Deal, Lincoln Unmasked, and other stuff found on mises.org (oddly enough, NONE of those books are available at my local library--I checked) has helped me realize that the foundation for all this was laid many generations ago. The country our founding fathers envisioned ended after Jefferson left office, made a fierce comeback with Jackson, was smothered by Lincoln, and killed by Taft (who sent his treasury guy to Jekyll Island). Hoover threw the first dirt on the coffin and FDR bulldozed back and forth on the grave. Then Nixon sent an "FU" card. Every president since then has been window dressing. Meanwhile, congress has gotten increasingly selfish, stupid, and arrogant, and voila, here we are today.
We still have to do our best to educate people, but I think we should also understand that the dream we were taught growing up of "liberty and justice for all" was a total falsity. It never existed in our lifetimes anyway. I am constantly struggling to adjust this paradigm so I don't regress into the depressed phase.
Austan Goolsbee is a Chicago School economist, which may be the worst bastardization of the field ever--he says he believes in the free market but wants the State to control it. That is my summary of those guys, anyway. I agree that this 'journalist' (that term has a whole new definition these days) is disgusting. Goolsbee makes my skin crawl--plus I want to beat up my laptop when he smirks. OMG--that smirking!! Almost everything he says is infuriating. If this was Krugman, I would take this interview apart with a line by line smackdown, but I think the administration used Goolsbee during the race and has now tossed him pretty much to the side. I don't know--just an impression. Suffering fools is never easy. It's extremely painful when the fools are of this magnitude and power. I am trying to imitate Ron Paul's temperament, though. Deep breathing and slow counting to 10 helps, too.
Eh, I think "Lois Romano is an irreconcilable failure" is a bit exaggerated. But you're right, she doesn't press Goolsbee on his horribly flawed reasoning and pure factual errors. And Goolsbee's the jackass who brings up Jon and Kate.
@SNK
Great book recommendations! I'm currently reading Crisis and Leviathan, which I find extremely relevant. Higgs is really challenging my eternal optimism. However, (I skipped to the last page and read his "Prospect"), I think he is wrong on the prospects for our free society. To rephrase his last sentence: "Ideas can gain sway through rational consideration in light of historical evidence and moral persuasion. [...] The American people will rediscover the worth of individual rights, limited government, and a free society under a true rule of law." And they are (slowly) --- I think the change in the prevailing ideology is happening now.
I was expecting some foul language but that was pretty tame, DB. Maybe it's because I'm fifty times worse when it comes to cussing. Some of my posts at betrayedbyobama.blogspot make battle-hardened soldiers cringe.
It was much more colorful before the edit....after reading it I felt like it sounded juvenile with the many, many creative uses of the F Bomb...basically, I wrote it how i wanted...then felt better and so i edited it...
@SNK
Great message...and nice advice...plus some books i've not read,....thanks...
I realize that Goolsbee brought up US magazine and Jon& Kate but Romano was intrigued once he said US magazine and wanted to know more...mostly, i was railing on her for giving such an awful performance as an interviewer...not asking a single important question and then switching gears to inquire of his reading material...
I suppose it was a combo-anger reaction at both of them, but since I always put myself mentally in the place of the interviewer I had sharper words for her mistakes.
http://dailybail.com/home/jon-stewart-asks-austan-goolsbee-is-the-us-too-big-to-fail.html
@ Robert
post a link if you can to one of your rants on your site...i would love to read it...thanks
http://www.businessinsider.com/austan-goolsbee-standup-comedian-2009-10
"For me, reading End the Fed, Meltdown, Economics in One Lesson, Crisis and Leviathan, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and New Deal, Lincoln Unmasked, and other stuff found on mises.org (oddly enough, NONE of those books are available at my local library--I checked)"
As many can see, truth is not always easy to get to. As history, and "truth" are always written by the victor, and all dissenting views are suppressed for the purpose of deceiving the masses and providing a false sense of "security".
Thanks for the link to mises.org, it looks like some good reading material. As I am sure you are finding out, educating the people is the hard part. I have spent many years doing the same, registering voters, going door to door, etc., and people would still rather continue the path we are on because it is familiar, for the unknown scares the hell out of them.
Just had a visit with the folks recently. Biggest threat to America? No, it's not bears. Get this --- it's "texting while driving." Seriously, WTF, mom and dad? Must have been some splash about it on the TEE vee. I'm pretty much writing off that generation. Doing the best I can with my own kids, though.
I feel your pain, the only member of my family outside the herd would be my father who was a Marine during the Vietnam era, which probably aided in his perspective shift. And we are the only two in the family who can have a real conversation, as all others will retreat to the safety of their aluminum foil hats.
The generation you refer to, is more responsible for what has occurred than any other, because the knowledge was available in their generation as it was harder to find in any other generation. They made a conscious choice to sell their grandchildren repeatedly throughout their lives. Because they are the generation of self interest and they have willed their grandchildren to be the generation of deprivation.
They justify selling out our nation by taking up the causes ("distractions"), that are relatively meaningless, such as texting, to save our souls, since they already sold the flesh. And in their world, things have only been bad since Jan. 20 2009, and nothing led up to this happening, as they must believe they are innocent of the crimes they have committed against the young.
Just as all Nazi party members ( majority of the country) professed innocence to their crimes and placed all responsibility on Hitler himself. After all, operating a gas chamber wasn't really bad was it, they got awards for being good employees and meeting quotas (sarcasm emphasized).
Hitler would have died a starving artist if times had not been so bad in Germany, but instead he had a message to preach and the people were desperate to hear... Out of great turbulent times, great madmen always arise, to make life "better" for the rest of us.
The grass is always greener... just over the next hill... and the herds always move on.
My Dad reads here often, Hi Dad. When I look in the blue eyes of my grandchildren, I know that I must fight for them, because they are to young to fight for themselves.