Because Phil Gramm and Arthur Laffer, two of the biggest behind-the-scenes contributors to America's financial problems, are arguing in favor of the motion that government is strangling the American Spirit. This on the radio program Intelligence Squared, which shows up every other Sunday on my public radio station.
Unfortunately, the people on the other side of the motion, Laura Tyson and Nouriel Rubini, are much too polite to slap these two down for their past behavior. You'll remember that it's Laffer who popularized supply-side economics, the idea that reducing taxes and cutting regulations will always result in higher economic growth than anything else. And it was Gramm who put the nail in the coffin of the Glass-Steagall Act which had prohibited banks from acting as both depository institutions and investment traders at the same time.
In my view, both of those actions have contributed mightily to the financial mess we currently find ourselves in, and both Gramm and Laffer should be shunned by polite society.
Posted by Linkmeister at November 7, 2010 12:27 PM | TrackBackI caught a bit of this program on XM upon coming home Saturday evening, mainly because I was searching for a station to keep me awake. I only heard a little bit of the show, decided that I did not like it due to the views that I was hearing, and switched the station to something else.
They seriously allowed two of the architects of the current economic mess to be "experts"? These two need to be in jail, not on a respectable radio show.
Posted by: James H. at November 9, 2010 03:36 AM