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Our economy: Sucking
By Ned | March 24, 2008
Paul Krugman is confused about what candidate he’s supposed to be secretly in the tank for.
Both Democrats, by contrast, are running more or less populist campaigns. But at least so far, neither Democrat has made a clear commitment to financial reform.
Is that simply an omission? Or is it an ominous omen? Recent history offers reason to worry.
In retrospect, it’s clear that the Clinton administration went along too easily with moves to deregulate the financial industry. And it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that big contributions from Wall Street helped grease the rails.
When will Krugman stop with all of the Obama bashing and just admit that he’s a total Clinton cultist?
Seriously though, folks, if an “epic financial crisis” (as Krugman calls it) isn’t enough to draw attention to the need for financial reform, I can’t think of a lot that will. Here are a few reasons why we’re not going to be hearing much about this stuff from the candidates in the future:
1.) Financial reform is complicated. I think that should be a given. It can’t be condensed down into readily available soundbites or headlines, and I’m willing to bet that John McCain isn’t the only person in America who doesn’t know a single thing about it.
2.) Financial reform is abstract. Financial reform didn’t give anyone cancer or blow up a building. It’s hard to explain how it affects people when you can just focus on the things that affect people in a direct and obvious manner. That doesn’t mean it’s not important, it just means that in the five seconds you just spent trying to explain why it’s important, your audience just got distracted by something else. Which brings us to,
3.) Financial reform is boring. It’s not something that you can sensationalize easily, especially compared to stories about terrorism or well-connected pastors saying kooky things in front of video cameras. Maybe if we can get Muqtada al-Sadr to openly denounce financial reform, then it will sound like another heroic campaign against terrorism.
Of course, there is a glimmer of hope that this issue might get some sunlight - but that involves our economic woes getting much, much worse first. I’m not an economist, so I’m not going to make a prediction about that one way or the other. All I’m saying is stock up on the canned beans.
Topics: Economics, The Media |