I cannot get enough of Friedman these days. I think it is probably because he seems to be echoing my thoughts exactly. Get a glimpse of his todays NYTimes OP-ED.
Well, you say, “I don’t own any stocks. Let those greedy monsters on Wall Street suffer.” You may not own any stocks, but your pension fund owned some Lehman Brothers commercial paper and your regional bank held subprime mortgage bonds, which is why you were able refinance your house two years ago. And your local airport was insured by A.I.G., and your local municipality sold municipal bonds on Wall Street to finance your street’s new sewer system, and your local car company depended on the credit markets to finance your auto loan and now that the credit market has dried up, Wachovia bank went bust and your neighbor lost her secretarial job there.
We’re all connected. As others have pointed out, you cant save Main Street and punish Wall Street anymore than you can be in a rowboat with someone you hate and think that the leak in the bottom of the boat at his end is not going to sink you, too. The world really is flat. We’re all connected. Decoupling is pure fantasy.
Ok I agree, there was a little bit of marketing for his own book (Friedman wrote “The World is Flat”). But I think what he says above is apt for the current time. I still cannot believe that Congress rejected the bailout plan, when I think, that is probably the only way, the US economy could have floated (albeit on lifejackets, but to put to float atleast).
ROFL on his thought about the government.
I’ve always believed that America’s government was a unique political system – one designed by geniuses so that it could be run by idiots. I was wrong. No system can be smart enough to survive this level of incompetence and recklessness by the people charged to run it.
Source : NYTimes OP-ED – [link]