dagblog - Comments for "Friedman Forever!"

Right on the money, D.

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:26:15 +0000

In reply to The only thing phony about

Right on the money, D.

"The only thing phony about

miguelitoh2o — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 15:17:18 +0000

In reply to The only thing phony about

"The only thing phony about class warfare is that that the MSM has [mis]characterized it as a battle between the middle class and the working poor." - Great comment. Great post Destor.

The only thing phony about

Donal — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:27:12 +0000

In reply to God, I'm so sick of this

The only thing phony about class warfare is that that the MSM has characterized it as a battle between the middle class and the working poor.

Well, along with Geithner,

we are stardust — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:18:17 +0000

In reply to God, I'm so sick of this

Well, along with Geithner, Bernanke and Obama. Yes, we apparently do. And most of 'us' find reasons to support their behavior, partially by choosing to buy into conventional neo-Liberal economic themes like "Gotta Save the Banks!" and "Gotta Get the Dow Back Up Above 10,000 or We'll All Be Dead!"

Oops: I forgot "There's NO WAY to Pass EFCA in This Political Climate!"

For Friedman and his wealthy

SleepinJeezus — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:10:51 +0000

In reply to God, I'm so sick of this

For Friedman and his wealthy associates, it's almost like the economy is a wholly separate beast that needs to be fed, and we middle class "human resources" are merely caloric intake to be consumed so the economy can grow. The notion that our economy should serve the needs of everyone is a completely foreign concept to these asshats.

Friedman's schtick is to tell you and I that we need to work longer hours for less pay and no retirement while abandoning all manner of labor and environmental regulations so that the economy can grow big and strong. Kinda' like telling the hangman's kids they gotta step up and put their head in the noose because the hangman has a family to support.

LOL! Happy Election Day, my

we are stardust — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:58:01 +0000

In reply to Thomas Friedman in possession

LOL! Happy Election Day, my friend. Oy.

Thomas Friedman in possession

SleepinJeezus — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:55:07 +0000

In reply to It was my fault, Jeezus. I

Thomas Friedman in possession of 500 pages of ruminations on the metaphorical theme of "herd animals that hunt" would be a very dangerous thing indeed.

Look out, stardust. I think I sense another Friedman tome in the offing!

And apropos Rees' piece, I'm reminded of a line that my father used when confronted with the likes of Friedman: "He speaks like a man with a paper asshole."

God, I'm so sick of this

Dan Kervick — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:50:11 +0000

In reply to Friedman Forever!

God, I'm so sick of this phoney-lib class warfare. Friedman, Avishai, Zakaria, and seemingly the whole Harvard economics department are terrified that they are going to lose their privileged, prima donna positions in this world as we continue to transition out of the "American century" into the "Something Else" century. Their solution is to stick ordinary Americans - who are among the hardest-working people in the world - with austerity plans, longer hours and hectoring on their work ethic and lack of entrpreneurial spirit. Meanwhile they run interference every day for their social-economic peers, whose entrpreurial spirit of innovation has consisted mostly in devising clever schemes for slicing enormous, gluttonous slices of the American pie for themselves, and for the least amount of work.

Lawrence Summers makes over 500K a year just on his Harvard salary, and also made a collossal fortune in the markets. He has a huge personal stake in outcomes that favor the very wealthy. And we let him make the crucial decisions that affect the bottom 99.9%?

It was my fault, Jeezus. I

we are stardust — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:36:33 +0000

In reply to The mistaken attribution is

It was my fault, Jeezus. I should have typed an attribution, and fell victim, once again, to feeling hurried and harried.

For my sins, I'll provide this link to Matt Taibbi's 'review' of The Earth is Flat, and his 'review' of Mr. War-time Units himself. A teaser:

Thomas Friedman in possession of 500 pages of ruminations on the metaphorical theme of flatness would be a very dangerous thing indeed. It would be like letting a chimpanzee loose in the NORAD control room; even the best-case scenario is an image that could keep you awake well into your 50s.
So I tried not to think about it. But when I heard the book was actually coming out, I started to worry. Among other things, I knew I would be asked to write the review. The usual ratio of Friedman criticism is 2:1, i.e., two human words to make sense of each single word of Friedmanese. Friedman is such a genius of literary incompetence that even his most innocent passages invite feature-length essays. I’ll give you an example, drawn at random from The World is Flat. On page 174, Friedman is describing a flight he took on Southwest Airlines from Baltimore to Hartford, Connecticut. (Friedman never forgets to name the company or the brand name; if he had written The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa would have awoken from uneasy dreams in a Sealy Posturepedic.) Here’s what he says:
I stomped off, went through security, bought a Cinnabon, and glumly sat at the back of the B line, waiting to be herded on board so that I could hunt for space in the overhead bins.
Forget the Cinnabon. Name me a herd animal that hunts. Name me one.

The mistaken attribution is

SleepinJeezus — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:49:40 +0000

In reply to That's David Rees, sleepin'.

The mistaken attribution is pretty embarrassing. I'm sure I've seen Rees' stuff before, but have always assumed it was Tom Tomorrow. Doh!

Thanks for pointing out the difference, and thanks for the link. I gotta' check this guy out!