November 23, 2008

Worthy of a smackdown

I was throwing clothes into the dryer a moment ago and the TV was showing us CNN's In the Money, a weekly show devoted to talking about the economy. One of the guests was a representative from the Cato Institute, a think tank which says its mission is

to increase the understanding of public policies based on the principles of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, and peace.
He was yammering away, explaining that if the government would just stay out of the way and stop regulating industry everything would be peachy-keen.

I wanted to throw something at him. Fortunately, the program's co-host Ali Velshi didn't do that, but he did imply what I wanted to say loudly and vociferously, which was "your ideas have been so discredited by the events of the past year that they have no merit. Go away."

It's the lack of regulation of the financial industry that has given us hedge funds, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and securitized mortgage debt, credit card debt, and all the rest of the derivatives which have brought our economy to its knees. Yet these clowns at Cato continue to spout their Randian nonsense, and worse, they continue to get forums to spout on.

Sometimes television producers should ignore "balance" and simply say "No" to these guys. They don't put Lyndon LaRouche on much, so you know they can self-regulate. Producers, please expand your list of "idiots who won't use my airtime to espouse foolishness."

Posted by Linkmeister at November 23, 2008 10:12 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Ah..yes. Deregulation also brought us our highly "safe" food system. ecoli, melamine, etc.

Posted by: cookie jill at November 23, 2008 03:11 PM

Wasn't it Cato who said "The economy must be destroyed"? Oh no, wait,. He was talking about Cathage.
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Posted by: Peter at November 23, 2008 03:38 PM

Er, make that "CaRthage," of course.

Posted by: Peter at November 23, 2008 03:40 PM

Well, Wikipedia, that noted arbiter of all things accurate, actually hedges. It attributes it to Cato, but doesn't absolutely state it as gospel.

Posted by: Linkmeister at November 23, 2008 04:00 PM