WashPost economics pundit and pseudo know it all Robert Samuelson, whom I often ridicule but sometimes praise, is up to his oldest and most tedious trick, “even-handedness”, commenting on what he calls the “schoolyard brawl” between President Trump and Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Samuelson sums up recent developments thusly: After the…
Tag: Robert Samuelson
Alan Vanneman’s Mythbusters! Why the “myth” of upward mobility does and does not matter
Robert Samuelson, who is, frankly, rarely my favorite economics pundit, writes a not entirely terrible column, “Upward mobility is a myth”, largely pivoting off a recent study, “The Fading American Dream: Trends In Absolute Income Mobility Since 1940”, issued by the National Bureau Of Economic Research, put together back in March 2017 by a bunch…
One for Bob
I lambasted, pretty much, Robert Samuelson last week for a dumb-ass column he wrote claiming that we don’t spend enough on defense. Well, this week, Bob gets it right, in a column praising President Obama’s handling of the Great Recession, which was in fact his greatest achievement, though not quite great enough to allow Hillary…
Yes, [INSERT NAME] is an idiot. This week’s winner, Robert Samuelson!
Yes, we do have a winner, as we always do. Bob takes home this week’s trophy for obsequiousness to the Pentagon above and beyond the call of duty, and in the face of all economic sense (his area of expertise, supposedly). After attacking fellow Postman Bob Woodward (for suggesting that the Pentagon could save $25…
A Wall of Shame for the Party of Shame
Wash Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson has a column up arguing that spending $25 billion for Donald Trump’s “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful” wall is a great idea, because building one would facilitate a grand compromise on immigration reform: “If we could buy an immigration bargain for $25 billion, or even a bit more, it…
Bob Samuelson, making me feel sorry for President Obama
Yeah, I didn’t think it was possible, not after the president’s too Obama to live statements on the Orlando Massacre, repeating vague calls for gun control measures that would not have prevented the killings and refusing to acknowledge murderer Omar Mateen’s shout out to ISIS. I mean, what’s in a name, anyway? Yeah, I’d had…
Phony Evenhandedness, Case No. 377,421,903
Wash Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson sez: “Hey, those Republicans and those Democrats! They both need to grow up, amirite or amirite?” Well, sure, Bob, but when it comes to your topic du jour, the national debt ceiling, it’s the Republicans, and only the Republicans, who need to grow up. Because it’s the Republicans, and…
Robert Samuelson, idiot
I have been in the past quite complimentary of Wash Post columnist Robert Samuelson. Well, I can’t take it all back because Bob often gets it right. But in this wretched post, “Defunding defense,” Bob gets it grossly and gratuitously wrong. It’s the “gratuitously” part that I can’t forgive, although the “grossly” part is, in…
Big Picture Bullshit
Apostate Republican David Frum and apostate jerk* Robert Samuelson both back the camera up from the current fray di DC to give us the big picture. Says Frum: Why are American politicians playing so rough? We have moved into an era of scarcity. Once it seemed possible to have the spending Democrats wanted, financed at…
Robert Samuelson: Yes, I am an idiot. Why do you ask?
Robert Samuelson, several eons ago a competent reporter, ends a column on a housing market still constrained by tight credit in the following manner: Public policy faces a contradiction. There’s a powerful impulse to blame banks for the financial crisis and to “make them pay.” Just recently, the Obama administration sued Bank of America, charging…