Thank you to one of my client’s who pointed out this piece to me. In this New York Times Op-Ed piece, Ireland = Nevada, economist Paul Krugman compares Ireland and Nevada, citing a few curious parallels.
A conclusion Krugman draws in the piece is that because Nevada is generating more than 5 percent of Fannie and Freddie losses, but has less than 1 percent of the US population, Nevada is in effect getting a federal bank bailout.
The piece is brief, but if you have the time, read the comment thread as well. It’s interesting to see people’s take on Nevada from other parts of the country.
smarten
“The Conscience of a Liberal?” This guy’s so ultra liberal and elitist, I’m surprised he has a problem with transferring the country’s wealth as a whole to l’ll ole Nevada. After all, isn’t he the economist who supports Nancy Pelosi’s idea that medicare, social security and unemployment benefits are the best stimulus package we can support because this way, the consumer will actually spend…
But of course on gambling and prostitution. Yeah, interesting indeed.
lurker
typical smarten. Attack the messenger, not the message. Lots of ad homonym attacks. Throw in a few invectives like “liberal” and “elitist” and walk away.
Wait a day or two. Then, scream holy murder when someone does the same to him.
Wash, rinse, repeat cycle.
inclinejj
I was expecting something good to read. That article looked like it was written in a hurry to make the guys deadline.
The comments are better then the original article.
The Spain comparison to CA was an interesting comment.
geopower
Smarten,
He doesn’t say he has a problem with transferring the wealth to Nevada from the rest of the US. I think he actually supports it, based on the longer discussion in his full article.
JJ,
This bit became part of a much larger article in the NYT Magazine about monetary policy and state sovereignty. See Can Europe Be Saved?
The gist of his article is that there are european nations in crisis, but without the authority to control their own monetary policy, or the benefit of wealth transfers from the rest of the EU. They are forced to correct their budgets by painful deflation of wages and cuts in entitlement spending. Nevada is better off in his view because it is stabilized by wealth transfers from the rest of the US, and the US can adjust its monetary policy though controlled inflation. He argues the US can print more money and achieve a comparable decrease in wages across the board, while coincidentally decreasing prices through inflation rather than deflation.
Yes, it’s a liberal point of view on the role of government in economics. Really, there’s no reason why elite should be an insult unless it’s implied to be unearned. He didn’t win a nobel prize in economics because he’s an idiot, or because of family connections. He may be wrong, you can argue with his ideas, but there’s no point in trying to challenge his credentials.
Oh, and lurker, I can’t help a little editing, if only for the irony: you used “homonym” (word that sounds the same but has a different meaning) for its near-homonym “hominem” (latin for “man.”)
Guy Johnson
geopower,
Thank you for providing the link to the larger article.
inclinejj
Thanks Geo
Phil
But calling somebody a “liberal” and an “elitist” is much simpler than actually thinking about what they have to say. Name calling has always been a substitute for thinking by the closed minded.
Rory
WOW to this snooty comment from somebody living in Downer’s Grove, IL:
“The Nevadans are, by and large, uneducated vagabonds. Their medical system is almost non-existent and where it exists, it should be banned. The oldest and most established citizens are themselves transients.”
Elitism and liberals, they go hand in hand.
geopower
from Wikipedia-
Downers Grove, IL is currently within a republican congressional district, voted for Bush 55% to 44% for Kerry in 2004. I agree it’s a snooty comment, but there’s no reason to assume it’s from a liberal. Frankly, it’s the kind of hyperbolic and inflammatory comment that people throw out when they’re trolling for a fight. A bit like “Elitism and liberals, they go hand in hand.”
Reno Ignoramus
400 years ago, conservative opinion held that society ought to execute witches because they were incarnations of the devil. Moderate opinion held that society ought to only execute a small number of witches. Radical liberal opinion held that society ought not to execute any witches at all.
200 years ago, conservative opinion held that slavery was part of the social order sanctioned by religious and secular traditions. Moderate opinion held that slavery was appropriate for some, but some ought to be freed. Radical liberal opinion held that slavery ought to be abolished for all.
100 years ago, consevative opinion held that people from mixed races ought not to be allowed to intermarry, citing religious and secular traditions. Moderate opinion held that restrictions against interracial marriage ought to be eliminated for some races, but not all. Radical liberal opinion held that people of mixed races ought to be allowed to intermarry without restriction.
Today, conservative opinion holds that people of the same sex ought not to be allowed to marry, citing religious and secular traditions. Moderate opinion holds that people of the same sex ought to be allowed to enter in certain unions, but not marriage. Radical liberal opinion holds that people of the same sex ought to be allowed to marrry without restriction.
Throughout history, conservative opinion has stood forth at the floodgates of history.
History, however, has been marked by the inexorable advance of liberal opinion.
Donna
RI,
You speak eloquently.
You make me proud to be a liberal elitist.
Reno underwater
RI,
Only 120 or so yrs ago the ” inexorable advance of liberal opinion” brought forth uber liberal Marx who postulated that liberal government can act as its own god in place of God and that the collective is more important that the individual. Almost 100 yrs ago Lenin set forth in his ” inexorable advance of liberal opinion” that the ultra liberal utopia of communism can cure all evils, including the evil of conservative resistance. Both of them had popular backing. Stalin only 60 or so years ago set forth his inexorable advance of liberal opinion” to rid the world of silly conservative thought that maybe communism was liberalism gone too far. Can’t have those 30-50 million thoughts running around. Let’s not forget Mao’s delusional ramblings, or Castro’s giant experiment “for the workers”, or Che, etc., etc. Let’s not forget the hundreds of millions of people slaughtered wholesale for this “inexorable advance of liberal opinion”. Seems liberals to their extreme are not so perfect afterall, just as conservatives to their extreme.
Stewart
Ahh, Reno underwater, you might note that RI was talking about the advance of civil liberties here in the United States, from the Salem Witch Trials to the current issue of same sex mariage. Marx never was much of a player here in the US, nor was Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, or Che. Perhaps you have not noticed that their ideologies didn’t take much root here.
Sounds like you were just born too late in time. You wish you could go down to the town square and observe the burning of a witch, or to buy or sell a slave?
Facepalm
Cracks me up that a dude who owns a million dollar house on Lake Tahoe is slinging the word “elitist” around. It’s so disconnected it’s laughable. Here’s a bit of unsolicited advice, Mr Regular Guy: why not go chill out on your balcony and soak in the gorgeous f’n view while you suck down another flute of champagne?
Facepalm
I got this image of a beautiful, rustic, yet refined log home, stone fireplace, big picture windows opening onto a vista of blue sky and snow-capped mountaintops and glittering lake, the muted sound of the whispering wind pushing through tall pines, warm sunshine on a redwood deck, crisp clean air, hawks circling high above… and Glenn Beck on the TV, sketching out eliminationist fantasies on a chalkboard, mugging and moping at the camera, a man seated in front of the TV, vein bulging on his forehead, daily filling his dream house with loud stupidity and propaganda. Turns his head a few degrees: unspeakable beauty. Turns his head back: the gutless interviewing the quitter.
lurker
Not sure who Facepalm is, but that post ranks as an instant classic in the annals of the RRB. Gonna have to clip and archive it, for the next time smarten gets up on his high horse. Nuthin like a guy in a $1.5M Tahoe chalet bitchin about elitists….