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March 26, 2008
Memories
Don Boudreaux
I certainly remember attending the December 1985 meeting of the American Economic Association in New York. When I walked into the hotel lobby, I was immediately surrounded by economists, dozens, perhaps hundreds, of them praising my unpublished doctoral dissertation. Ronald Coase was in the front line, telling me what a genius I am. Paul Samuelson fell to his knees before me, embarrassingly worshipful, to exclaim that my work has finally shown him the light. That's what happened.
..... What? You say that there's no record of my legions of fans greeting me and singing my praises in December 1985? Do you mean to say that the record quite clearly shows that, while I did indeed attend those meetings, my presence there made absolutely no discernible impact? Is it true that the cameras did not record Coase's encomiums to me or Samuelson's homage paid to me? Hmmm..... Well, perhaps I misspoke. It proves, you know, that I'm human. Anyone, after twenty-two years, could mistake his complete anonymity at a meeting of illustrious scholars for his being feted, celebrated, and glorified. I am, you know, only human.
Posted by Don Boudreaux in Myths and Fallacies, Politics | Permalink
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I remember back in 'Nam how I slept in the jungle rain praying for John Kerry to come and rescue me.
Posted by: Python | Mar 26, 2008 1:11:02 AM
Let's face facts here. Hillary gets to run for President because she put up with Bill getting serviced by an intern in the Oval Office. Obama gets to run because he built his political base and career from Reverend Wright's church.
Hillary is either an intentional liar or, perhaps worse, has scary visions of grandeur. Obama either eats up the bile spewed out by his pastor or, perhaps worse, he tolerated it and used it to build a political base. OK, we know it's perhaps worse for both of them. Wink, wink, nod.
I would like to propose a bargain. Either one of them can be President and indulge their unhealthy lust for power if they'll promise not to stir anything up too much. Yes, that even means going with the flow on Iraq. Nobody likes being there, but the thing I fear more is not being there with China's emerging military might in the coming decade. Flawed as we are, I trust the worst of our intentions more than the best of theirs. They're shooting at monks ferchrissakes! And they're gonna solve the problem by forcing the monasteries to accept ideological trainers to get the monks in line with Party ideology.
Or McCain can be President if he will just shut up and let Obama and Hillary fight to the death. The logic behind his 0% mortgage proposal today was beyond comprehension. The suggestion that GM offered 0% financing post 9/11 to help the economy is bass ackwards. They did it to sell cars, not to provide economic stimulus. Why would loan originators who don't have inventory of the assets they are lending money to purchase offer such incentives? I don't get it.
Posted by: BoscoH | Mar 26, 2008 3:11:09 AM
No Don, I remember that conference. There was no fanfare although there was supposed to a welcoming ceremony. You just got out of the car, put your head down and ran into the hotel to escape the sniper fire. Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday. There were Keynsians firing at you (and Dr. Laffer) all over the place. How could you forget such a traumatic event?
Posted by: tiger | Mar 26, 2008 6:15:54 AM
"...after 12 years"?
Posted by: matt | Mar 26, 2008 6:55:30 AM
Don,
In my lexicon it's called "creative history" and that is exercised frequently by people at all levels and all walks of life when in a situation where they think their audience is unlikely to be able to fact check or contradict their version of their history.
Hence, the average Joe becomes the stud of his High School when recounting tales to his nephews. Wilt Chamberlain, had sex with 20,000 women by age forty, etc. etc. etc.
Both sexes are guilty.
Posted by: vidyohs | Mar 26, 2008 7:18:38 AM
Brutal, but hilarious. ;-)
Posted by: Speedmaster | Mar 26, 2008 8:09:30 AM
Apparently she also claimed that her mother named her after Sir Edmund the Everest guy. The only problem turned out to be that he climbed Mount Everest well after she was born. I thought embellishing the past was fishermen's prerogative?
Posted by: Unit | Mar 26, 2008 8:16:32 AM
Perhaps her mother knew Sir Edmund on a more intimate level in those prior days, perhaps the name Hillary suggests that, eh?
Who knows about speculation and fabrication?
Posted by: vidyohs | Mar 26, 2008 8:32:51 AM
hey--it's fisherpeople; let's drop the gender specific here.
OOO! Hil's showing us the light! See? she's as adept as her man, Bill.
Posted by: shawn | Mar 26, 2008 8:32:59 AM
Could someone get a mop? The sarcasm is dripping all over the floor in here!
Janitorial concerns aside, I don't think we'll have to worry about Hillary Clinton being President. The real question though is why is she good enough to keep being a U.S. Senator?
Oh, right. She represents New York. Where compared to other politicians, she's a beacon of truth and light....
Posted by: Ironman | Mar 26, 2008 8:45:53 AM
Here you go guys, a sample of how the nanny state makes your life better.
The bigger the nanny state, the bigger the "assistance".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/25/nbus125.xml
Posted by: vidyohs | Mar 26, 2008 8:52:47 AM
"Why would loan originators who don't have inventory of the assets they are lending money to purchase offer such incentives? I don't get it."
While I don't agree with McCain, I do believe the lenders have quite an inventory. I bet thing are going to get a lot more creative this year.
Posted by: Tom | Mar 26, 2008 9:46:57 AM
Oh, right. She represents New York. Where compared to other politicians, she's a beacon of truth and light....
Yeah, we really know how to pick 'em, don't we?
Oh well, at least she's a brilliant commodity futures trader, right?
Posted by: Methinks | Mar 26, 2008 11:20:09 AM
"So I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I'm human, which, you know, for some people, is a revelation."
Should be:
"So I lied. That happens. It proves that I'm a liar, which, you know, for some people, is not a revelation."
Posted by: Billy | Mar 26, 2008 1:08:56 PM
I find the paucity of discussion of true economic issues curious.
Right now global economic history is being made for better or worse. The world economy has not been so twisted and uncertain in perhaps 78 years and the discussion is on Hillary's memories?
Economic theories are being tested like never before in the real world. How about we talk about things like Glass-Steagall Act or securitization or derivatives or moral hazzards?
Here's a good article at FT;
"Remember Friday March 14 2008: it was the day the dream of global free- market capitalism died."
Posted by: muirgeo | Mar 26, 2008 1:35:49 PM
BTW, who killed Vince Foster?
Posted by: indiana jim | Mar 26, 2008 1:40:08 PM
Muirdiot,
The reason you find such "paucity" is because you're on the wrong fricken' thread - as usual. This one is about Hillary's lying. Can't you find a similar moron on Daily Kos to misunderstand the Glass-Steagall act with?
Posted by: Methinks | Mar 26, 2008 1:48:46 PM
On-topic and also hilarious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc
Posted by: Swimmy | Mar 26, 2008 2:16:21 PM
like...hazzard county? them duke boys at it again?
Posted by: shawn | Mar 26, 2008 3:47:35 PM
muirgeo said:
"The world economy has not been so twisted and uncertain in perhaps 78 years and the discussion is on Hillary's memories?"
No - not memories. Misremembering (remembering things incorrectly) must contain an element of plausibility to distinguish it from Lying.
Your probably misremembering when you mention the wrong older girlfriend that was with you on that fourth of July on the lake 15 years ago....but your probably lying if you say that the Loch Ness Monster nearly ate your boat.
Your probably misremembering when you mention that the welcome ceremony for your trip to Bosnia took place indoors rather than on the tarmac....but your probably lying if you say: "I remember landing under sniper fire." and "..we just RAN with our heads down.." when no such highly memorable incident even took place.
Running down a tarmac under sniper fire would be burned in anyone's memory no?
Again - to the youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6JN7ALF7Y
What does such a blatant fabrication tell you about the character of the person who uttered it?
Posted by: I_am_a_lead_pencil | Mar 26, 2008 4:27:03 PM
Methinks,
It is kinda amusing when muirduck exposes his ignorance of markets/free markets, and yes sometimes annoying.
But, don't you find it truly frightening when you read the ignorance of people like the head of the Duetsch Bank and realize that they are as dim as muirduck?
What is it in the word free that they don't ever seem to grasp.
Posted by: vidyohs | Mar 26, 2008 6:55:23 PM
vidyohs,
I don't think Ackerman is ignorant. I think he, like every other bank CEO, is saying all the right things to smooth the path for them when it comes time to ask for a handout. The only time these guys love free markets is when not having one gets in the way of making money. Otherwise, their primary job is rent-seeking.
I can't help but wonder how much of the recklessness of banks had to do with an underlying assumption that they would be bailed out if anything truly bad happened. In other words, these "bailouts" (however one chooses to define that term) reinforce existing moral hazards rather than create new ones.
My husband thinks that more than thinking they would be bailed out, they really thought they were BSD's who couldn't fuck up. Hubris. Or it could be a combination of the two - hubris plus a put.
What is it in the word free that they don't ever seem to grasp.
I can't help but point out that Deutsche is a German bank. (sorry, couldn't help myself).
Posted by: Methinks | Mar 26, 2008 9:48:37 PM
Murthaduck (how can you laugh at a time like this!?) is a typical leftist/socialist/progressive who can't stand the idea of people laughing when we face extinction because of global warming, or mass starvation because of the impending Great Depression II.
Posted by: brotio | Mar 27, 2008 1:48:56 AM
One of the greatest things about the internet is that it provide near instantaneous fact checking. I expect a few more years of hilarity before the politicians catch on.
Posted by: David Johnson | Mar 27, 2008 2:00:03 AM
Methinks,
I see your point about the duetsch vis-a-vis the word free, :-), and got a chuckle out of your jab.
But, that CEO just happened to be the one mentioned in the first two paragrpahs in the referenced article, in which I could go no farther due to my aversion of stupidity.
Anyway, new day, new dollar, have a g'day!
Posted by: vidyohs | Mar 27, 2008 6:12:40 AM
Methinks,
In addendum, I agree that what they say for public consumption is not necessarily what they really think, so perhaps he isn't ignorant he just uses the words for cover.
Posted by: vidyohs | Mar 27, 2008 6:14:40 AM
I find the discussion of Hillary's memory quite disturbing. Why do the owner's of this site think they can occasionally mix in a non-economic topic amongst the hundreds of economic threads? Must be a conspiracy.
And by the way, the banking/finance world is certainly in trouble, but the guy on the street (particularly the one who didn't lie on their mortgage application) is still better now than he was at any point before Reagan.
We have more people employed as a rate of the population than at any point than before 1988, the stock market is higher than at any point before 2002. Real GDP per capita and household incomes are at or just below their all-time highs. And yes, inflation and mortgage rates are still very low compared to historical averages..
In addition, we learn about all of the "bad news" on our plasma TVs with a choice of 100 channels or high-speed internet connections; discussing it on our cell phones; while sitting in our air-conditioned homes with our cold Pepsis and hot food at our fingertips; living to the ripe age of 75-85, getting obese due to the excess of choice. :-)
Yeah, things "could" be better. But I personally would take right now over any random point in the 20th century, and by a long shot.
Posted by: Python | Mar 27, 2008 12:05:26 PM
Yeah...well...Python, what about the suffering? People with no equity in their homes and the risk profiles of renters are going to have to suffer the pain of a move,/i>! Gasp! When was the last time you moved? It's very stressful to move! Suffering.
Posted by: Methinks | Mar 27, 2008 12:54:38 PM
wow. I felt that so much that I forgot to close the tag.
Posted by: Methinks | Mar 27, 2008 12:56:34 PM
They have to shoot at the rioters because they're brutalizing and even killing the local han people. Oh yes but that's not justifiable because the local tibetans were culurally annihilated with the PRC wanting them to learn Mandarin. What would the US government do if the blacks start killing off the local whites? The blacks situation is ten times worse but even though you sympathize the root of their concern you still have to stabilize the society by suppressing any ongoing killings in the society.
Posted by: Avina | Apr 11, 2008 5:19:51 PM
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