Quick reads
Posted by In-Cog-Nito on February 26th, 2004 (All posts by In-Cog-Nito)
Good articles by Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter
Good counter point by Larry Kudlow
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Posted by In-Cog-Nito on February 26th, 2004 (All posts by In-Cog-Nito)
Good articles by Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter
Good counter point by Larry Kudlow
February 26th, 2004 at 8:24 am
Buchanan is wrong on all points — as is usual in his economic arguments. Coulter, like a typical journo discussing issues she isn’t expert about, trivializes the economics debate as a political horse race.
Kudlow is not only right — free trade is an unqualified good, and the U.S. is doing reasonably well economically — but has a better attitude than Buchanan and Coulter combined. It probably helps that he knows what he is talking about and isn’t merely trying to rile up his readers.
Thomas Sowell had an excellent WSJ op-ed on economic illiteracy a couple of days ago. It’s only available by subscription, but you can get a good innoculation against populist economic claptrap by reading some of his archived columns here.
February 26th, 2004 at 10:09 am
I liked Buchanan as a debater on CNN’s Crossfire. It seemed the perfect setup for him. Aside from that, I could never be bothered to care about him.
February 26th, 2004 at 1:06 pm
Linking to Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter in the same post, sure weighs it down a bit. –s
February 26th, 2004 at 1:19 pm
Scott, we don’t do light beer around here…
February 26th, 2004 at 2:39 pm
I like Pat. Despite his shortfalls, he’s definitely pro America. He’s also about as conservative as you get.
Ann is Ann. She’s a good read for entertainment value – a good Republican attack dog for lack of better term.
February 26th, 2004 at 3:10 pm
Buchanan’s got a great delivery, as well as a natural instinct for eight minute debates. Greatest Industrial Republic??? Wha? There’s no escaping the modern era. Automation costs jobs. Computers trim jobs. Does he perhaps propose to run out, stir up a mob, and destroy all the steam driven weaving frames… oppps. That’d be too obviously Luddite.
Coulter brings up something I’ve been mulling over. Organized labor is a service industry. And although the old industrial Unions have lost their purpose in the US (mainly by bad political choices), perhaps it’s time they started to think of themselves differently. Why don’t the Unions expand into new markets? They’ve got the pension dough to fund foreign investment. They’ve got plenty of unemployed members who could easily set up and run new operations with their eyes closed.
I’m not suggesting that they set up as a Union in a place like Brazil or China, but rather than they handle operations in those countries vastly messy supply chains. Meat Processing, packing, light industry, etc. in a Country like China and India are run by the most corrupt and useless political placemen around. The AFL-CIO has more money in it’s pension funds than most Countries National reserves, as well as a skill base and organizational experience in exactly the industries that other Countries are now constantly underbidding us on.
And although the Unions might be corrupt, there’s one thing that has to be admtitted about them. They’ve managed their members pensions better than any Socialist or Communist Party in history.
February 26th, 2004 at 4:18 pm
Alexander,
Unions don’t have an especially good record of managing their members’ pension money. For example, have you heard of the Diplomat Resort?
February 27th, 2004 at 12:51 am
Good point Alexander about Unions organizing other countries.
I’ve often thought the same about radical feminists and race-baiters. Relatively speaking, America is the most tolerant country in the world with respect to women’s rights and racial equality. They’re pretty much preaching to the choir at this point, so they’ve become demagogues and bullies (or rather, cowards). They should go where their efforts would make a bigger difference.
February 27th, 2004 at 8:27 am
Is Pat Buchanan a Republican again? If he is then I’m not any more.
I’ve asked this question hundreds of times but never gotten a satisfactory answer:
If the Reublicans are now for protectionism and big governmment, then who is going to be the party of samll government and free trade? Can we pronounce the Goldwater/Reagan wing of the party officially dead now?