Paul Krugman, the op ed maestro has another great column for us all. But I must say the first commenter on the column stole the show.
Joe Idaho says…I like McCain. I think he has a strong understanding of the issues, and that he is a strong leader who will lead us towards peace reform and prosperity. Look at how he brought everybody together to find a deal to this crisis. Its a shame the socialist democrat just want to raise taxes and give more to the nonbeliever.
I think Obama cannot be trusted because he is a muslim and a baby killer. Plus, he is an elitist snob who does not respect Christians and will take my guns away from me. We do not need this in Real America. We need to go back to the real value of the Bible and pray and hope to be on Gods side at rapture.
No doubt that one was greeted with rapturous applause
There is growing evidence that genetics influences whether a person becomes a liberal or a conservative and that conservatism is associated with a heightened propensity to be fearful (hence support for gun ownership, fear of Muslims, belief in the Rapture).
If and when scientists identify the gene or genes that determine this, it would be interesting to map distribution across the US and perhaps even from country to country. One might speculate that there is a higher incidence of “fear genes” among Americans than among Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders and that that can be traced back to the differing factors that led European settlers to choose (or in the case of Australia, be forced) to emigrate to each country.
Mike – are you implying there might have been a higher percentage of “fearful” people among immigrants to the USA than the other three given?
Doesn’t it sound more plausible the other way around?
How very prophetic. I happened to see bits and pieces of ‘Deliverance’ on You Tube today.
Citing Paul Krugman as a reliable source on economics is like using anything Robert Fisk says on the Middle East or Seymour Hersch on *anything*. The man has a shocking track record.
The Democrats created the subprime mess. The Republicans should have tried harder to fix it (do people know that the administration tried 17 times just in 2008 to reign in Freddy and Fannie?). There is blame on both sides.
At the end of the day, the cause was a triumph of compassion over standards; wanting to see everyone own a house whether they could afford it or not.
Jack Lacton is either on drugs or off with the fairies.
Kruggers has a very good record. On this issue he was so far ahead of the pack it was daylight second.
Neither Freddie nor Fannie created this mess. They were a consequence of it.
The worst Chairman of the Fed in the post-war period, lax regulations and a belief that housing prices ALAWAYS go up led to this problem.
Kruggers actually pointed out very early why there was a housing bubble and what would occur.
Greenspan made the statement that it was impossible to have a housing bubble!