Every weekend I try to watch PBS’s The McLaughlin Group and ABC’s Sunday Morning roundtable. I find them entertaining and that, between the two, they offer a pretty fair balance of views. This morning on Sunday Morning the panelists consisted of Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Donna Brazile, and George Will. I found two points worth taking away. First, the argument that John McCain made on the credit crisis namely that government should keep its nose out and should let the market decide, whatever its merits, is a losing one rhetorically and politically. There are going to be bailouts, subsidies, and moral hazard. Get used to the idea.
Second, I couldn’t agree more with George Will’s point, which he expressed as “Will’s Principle” and got broad agreement from the other panelists that no executive of either J. P. Morgan or Bear Stearns should be paid more than a GS-15. As a matter of law that probably can’t be done but it can be influenced by reforms in what is and isn’t deductible as a legitimate cost of doing business and I think it should be done as a message to rent-seekers.
Every weekend I try to watch PBS’s The McLaughlin Group….
I had no idea that you were a masochist.
In many ways I think The McLaughlin Group is to discourse as professional wrestling is to athletics.
I find that The McLaughlin Group is center-right to right leaning to about the same degree that ABC’s Sunday Morning roundtable is center-left or left leaning. If you listened to only one or the other you’d receive a pretty darned skewed version of events.
I don’t think you’re giving professional wrestling enough credit!
I should mention that I used to watch both of those programs (and many other similar programs) on a regular basis. I still do occassionally, to my ever lasting shame. Once a junkie….