Thomas Friedman’s Obama Administration Update
By Barry Ritholtz - March 16th, 2009, 10:20AM
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Thomas L. Friedman – Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. Friedman was bureau chief for The Times in Beirut and Jerusalem before writing, From Beirut to Jerusalem, which won the National Book Award for non-fiction. His book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree won the 2000 Overseas Press Club award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy. His latest work, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century, won the inaugural Goldman Sachs/Financial Times Business Book of the Year award. He has a B.A. in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University and a Master of Philosophy degree in Modern Middle East studies from Oxford.
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March 16th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Ok, it finally occured to Mr Friedman that the financial system is complicated. Will it take one or two Friedman unit to get out of this mess?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_(unit)
March 16th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Has anyone sent this video clip to our Stern Taskmaster J. Stewart? Be careful if you do: Mr. Friedman doesn’t blame CNBC or Cramer.
Time will get us out of this mess, but how long is not so easy to determine.
Warren Buffet is down 50%, so he seems to be in the same boat…hoping it floats and doesn’t sink.
How about those wild and crazy guys at AIG taking $180 B (maybe I’m low) plus extra for vacations, on the US taxpayer nickel?
March 17th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Why does anyone take Friedman seriously? Here is a guy who was cheering the Iraq invasion and wrote nonsense about the nurturing of Iraqi democracy only to do a 180 degree turn as soon as the occupation went badly and blame Bush for everything even as he demanded that more troops and money were spent on what was a futile cause. He cheered on the economic and trading arrangements that had developed over the past two decades without ever figuring out the implications. (I guess when you marry into a family fortune that was based on the value of shopping malls it is easy to develop a blind spot because reality makes one sleep uneasily.)
Recently it seems that Mr Freidman has found religion. Instead of taking the time to think clearly he has been urging the government to engage in central planning and drive the economy towards predetermined goals. Let us free ourselves from OPEC by wasting trillions pursuing green technology that private investors find far too risky says Mr Friedman. If they can’t compete just put on taxes on competitive sources of energy and use the proceeds to subsidize the green energy producers. Of course, by making consumers pay more for goods and services Mr Friedman does not seem to realize that the 2% of the family fortune that is still left may be worth a great deal less but I am certain that there is some kind of plan that he will be pushing to take care of that problem in the future.
I also find it somewhat hypocritical that in the clip Mr Friedman admits that he does not really have answers while he has been building a career by pushing the wrong answers to gullible readers and policy makers.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:00 am
VangelV wrote:
“..(Friedman says)Let us free ourselves from OPEC by wasting trillions pursuing green technology that private investors find far too risky says Mr Friedman. If they can’t compete just put on taxes on competitive sources of energy and use the proceeds to subsidize the green energy producers. Of course, by making consumers pay more for goods and services Mr Friedman does not seem to realize that the 2% of the family fortune that is still left may be worth a great deal less…”
You seem to have stated the basic capitalist critique of goosing the renewable energy market. It does seem to make sense if your head is entirely in the Finance Insurance and and Real Estate industries. “The market is efficient, so always let the market lead.”
Over here in the physical engineering disciplines, I’m not convinced. There is a hell of a lot of infrastructure activity necessary to transition off of oil. There is an imperative to transition off of oil that has nothing to do with greenhouse gas, the world’s most exploitable fields really have peaked out their production. It will only get more painful for all parties from here out, as the prices inevitably go back up and the new fields inevitably cost much more to exploit (this includes Canadian tar sands).
Unlike the frog in the pot we know the water will boil. Why not jump out sooner rather than later? Waiting until the last instant does not seem “efficient” to me.