A conversation with Tom Friedman author of “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America”
"My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil." —John Paul Getty
Consumer Credit outstanding fell $14.8b in Sept seasonally adjusted, almost $5b more than expected and marks the 11th month in the past 12 of declines. At $2.456T outstanding, it is 4.9% below the record high in July '08. After a flat reading in Aug, (didn't fall b/c of the CARS program), non revolving debt outstanding fell by $4.9B. Revolving (mostly credit cards) balances outstanding fell by $9.9B. To fully put into perspective today's data, look at the current level of consumer credit (doesn't include mortgages, the biggest chunk of consumer credit) relative to GDP. As of Q3, it totaled 17.2%...
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December 13th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Tom Friedman is so awful. He’s explicitly calling for the creation of a new bubble when we’re still picking up body parts from the explosion of the last one.
Bubble economics does NOT work Tom. Government’s encouraging industries through subsidization (aka boondoggles), easy money (aka Fed low interest rate policies) and self-interested “oversight” (aka Congress) leads to mal-investment, and ultimately the destruction of the currency.
How can it be that we’re still listening to neocons like Friedman (yes, he was an Iraq rah-rah boy), who advocate democratic imperialism and command-and-control economics? Are we truly a nation of morons run by idiots?
Sadly, every day further evidence piles up to make that case.
December 13th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Well, Suck. On. This!
Tom Friedman has repeatedly shown that he’s not an expert in any field that he’s covering. His crazy support for the war in Iraq and creation of a Friedman Unit. The next “few months” or “six months” are decisive and critical. Yeah, time is always critical wherever there’s a crisis. Problem was that Bush kept using those few months to f*&k things up further.
Why somebody would pay more than $50000 to listen to this bobblehead is beyond me.
December 13th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
this guy’s, Tom Friedman’s, missives need to be filed under the “Disinfo/Agitprop”-Tab of TBP 1.1..
To say much more, about the relative worth of his ‘Insights’, demeans us all..
December 13th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Friedman is part of a disappearing breed of humble Americans who travel the world to learn about the world’s problems by listening to people who’ve never owned a stock or a health insurance policy. If he’s wealthy it’s a side effect of a life lived in search of answers for difficult problems. Maybe if the commenters above would step away from their e-trade screens for a week and take a trip overseas they’d come back a little wiser too.
December 13th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
blackbox,
there’s always room for someone, including myself, to be mistaken. maybe, I’ve the wrong take on dude.
but, why not proffer one his Theses, as evidence of what you’re trying communicate, as opposed to clips from one of his PR sheets, or snippets from his ‘dust jacket’?
full disclosure: I don’t utilize E*Trade in any fashion.
December 14th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Readers who are not familiar with Friedman’s history of comments on the Iraq troubles might google:
‘ “Thomas Friedman ” Iraq’. I am sure Friedman has some interesting things to say, but here it is a question of integrity and trust. There are plenty of people out there with some wisdom to impart on this subject that, while they may not be as silver tongued as Friedman, have a hell of lot more loyalty to the truth.
December 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
“There are plenty of people out there with some wisdom to impart on this subject that, while they may not be as silver tongued as Friedman, have a hell of lot more loyalty to the truth.”–justaguy
and, in keeping with my own sense: “To say much more, about the relative worth of his ‘Insights’, demeans us all..”–I’ll be done w/ this thread.