Giuliani: Clueless about Economics, Crisis, Bailouts
I’ve always been grateful that Rudy Giuliani was NYC mayor during the 9/11 attack. He was reassuring during a moment of crisis, when leadership was otherwise missing. He stepped into the void after the attack, while others seemed to disappear. Giuliani’s political career — which was in tatters at that time — was rescued by his leadership.
But I’m watching Rudy speak on CNBC about bank bailouts and bank regulation — and I am comforted by the simple fact that he is not in charge. As critical as I have been about the Obama administration’s economic approach, it has been about the policy response, not the understanding of the crisis.
The mayor, on the other hand, is frighteningly clueless in a Phil Gramm kinda way — he clearly does not understand how the crisis occurred, what caused the collapse, and how to fix it. Instead spouts the same discredited meme — that too much regulation was the problem. He is old school, well coached in free market aphorisms and now discredited market worship.
Its a shame that none of the anchors queried him as to what current regulations he would get rid of. (Nothing like letting a hanging curveball pass you by for a called strike).
Video at CNBC.com
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September 22nd, 2009 at 8:59 am
BR – You are spot on with this one. NY was sick of Rudy, but he was a presence after 9/11, and he rode that wave as far as he could, but it wasnt a brain transplant.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:05 am
I’m sure if he were in charge he’d be reading from the same talking points cue card Obama is today
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
@BR
What do you suppose is worse?
“understanding of the crisis” (as you mention), yet either outright IGNORING it, or concocting half baked and inefficient measures to deal with it?
or
Being clueless
Answer: In the end, it doesn’t matter much does it? So the upshot is that it will simply disintegrate into another one of those “all heat, no light” arguments.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:24 am
One can hope that enlightenment leads to correct decision making — its no guarantee, but the odds must be better than pure dumb luck of the clueless . . . ?
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:27 am
I am shocked, SHOCKED, to hear a CNBC anchor missed a slow-pitch softball followup!!!!!!
[Wouldn't be surprised if last year's company kickball game ended in a scoreless tie after 5 hours...]
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
It’s just further proof that that whole charade is about entertainment not news. It’s worthless with respect to real information. Eye candy for eyeballs to drive ratings and ad revenue.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:42 am
@BR
So far, the only ENLIGHTENMENT I’ve heard is from yourself and many commenters on this blog.
To use a metaphor, I wonder how much rainfall will be needed to penetrate the dense clay of the earth and make it down to the wellspring (from which it can eventually provide a life giving service).
It seems lately, all of the rainfall simply lands on the ground and is quickly evaporated back up into the sky by a parching sun.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:50 am
“I’ve always been grateful that Rudy Giuliani was NYC mayor during the 9/11 attack. He was reassuring during a moment of crisis, when leadership was otherwise missing. He stepped into the void after the attack, while others seemed to disappear. Giuliani’s political career — which was in tatters at that time — was rescued by his leadership.”
He is just a man happened to be there at the right time. Anyone could have done the “reassurance” job. Same as how people credit him for falling crime rates in NYC. It’s not because of him.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:58 am
Indoctrination has a curious effect, Giuliani is certainly a case in point. I suspect we will see and hear from many who suffer the same condition to thwart any actions that counter the movement. Did I see that Art Laffer has abandoned his bunker?
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 am
Barry & others…there is a reason stupid ass Rudy who was the supposed favorite in the Republican primaries finished near the bottom. He’s a tool. He’s a guy who knows only ONE thing (reducing crime) and knows next to nothing about everything else. The man’s own kids would not vote for him in the primary…I believe one of his kids went to work for the Obama campaign while Dad was still a candidate.
He is by far, the most overrated, overexposed, overcredited politician of our time. Had 9/11 not occurred, he would be working at CNBC wiping the floors.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:03 am
@investorinpa: Bingo. Unctuous is the word that comes to my mind when thinking about Rudy (which I don’t do much anymore).
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:13 am
Now, if only Rudy had not ignored Louis R. Anemone, Department Chief of the NYPD, who informed him years before 9/11 that the WTC/NYC were not prepared for another terrorist attack, then he really would have been a hero…
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:16 am
investorinpa:
GWB was another dolt who rode the 911 attacks until there was nothing left to exploit. Giuliani was all about “law & order” until it came to cleaning up corporate criminality — he left that to the likes of Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo (I can forgive Eliot Spitzer his sexual peccadillos, but not his hypocrisy).
Why is anyone even giving Giuliani air time nowadays?
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:18 am
OK guys, Rudy is discredited. I still think that it is dangerous to keep harping on good old regulation as the cure (which regulation? you really trust the politicso and government bureaucrats that much?!) The more you tear down the “free market” you risk “throwing out the baby with the bathwater” — the only institution left standing will be government. Yes, certain aspects of FINANCIAL deregulation were harmful, but let’s please be specific about the cures.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:19 am
The way Giuliani has used 9/11 for political gain has been disgraceful, I vomit everytime I see his disgusting face.
I’m with manhattanguy, he was just there.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:20 am
@MA: But if crimes are done in a suit (and with a smile), that’s not a real “crime”. That’s just the “free markets” at work, and “business” and “politics” in the USofA.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:21 am
He reminds me of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. I can’t shake that image every time I see Mr. Burns. My wife once presented at NYC ToyFair and she got me a free Mr. Burns action figure. Splitting image of Rudy.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:24 am
Rudy Giuliani’s epitaph (as written by Joe Biden!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPOAKXBi9Pw
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:36 am
He understands the problem but speaking the truth would result in lower speaking fees and campaign contributions and hurt his chances of being a board member.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:42 am
I’m so glad others share the sentiment that I share about Rudy. Very few people deserve a kick in the gonads like this guy does. This is not an attack on New Yawkers, but what the hell were you thinking when you felt this guy could be President? Do you think anyone from the middle, southern, western, or northern part of the US holds this guy in ANY regard other than clueless dolt who pumps a flag up and wears a US flag pin?
He is as qualified to give his take on financial reform as Kanye West is about etiquette when others are talking.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:44 am
Isn’t our current VP Joe Biden more deserving of our scorn? He *is* in a position of power and influence. Rudy is just a wannabe…
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:07 am
I don’t want to over-regulate the large banks. What I want is to make it easy for the government to break up a bank and/or liquidate its assets if the CEO of the bank so much as asks for a bailout. OTOH, deposit-taking institutions that are backed by the FDIC should be regulated, even to the point that their growth is stifled.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
@investorinpa: Rudy isn’t as beloved in NYC and New York State as you think. The only reason why more people don’t totally loathe the guy was because of his leadership during 9/11. I lived there at the time and can tell you that many New Yorkers couldn’t stand him and wanted him out by the time 9/11 rolled around. At one point he tried to get the laws passed so he could run again and stay in office (similar to Bloomberg) and most New Yorkers decried the move and wanted him gone.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:26 am
I might give Guiliani a little credit for some of the things he did to clean up NYC, but most of what he did during the crisis any leader would have done. Crises by their nature present limited options and sharpen the senses. It is easy to say bold encouraging things at such a time, as GWB did as well.
I don’t give any politicians credit for how they reacted to 9/11 — the initial decisions were obvious, and the intermediate-term decisions were wrong, leading to two intractable wars that would not solve the long-term problems of terrorism.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
CNBC? Why are you wasting your life on stuff like that?
I remember sitting at home years ago watching the local pro football team flailing away once again… I looked out the window and saw golden leaves, green grass and a crackling clear blue sky and thought: this is my life I’m spending here. I’ve never watched another pro football game.
Same with “big’ news, in any form. My time is my life and it is more valuable than what they offer.
September 22nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
“The way Giuliani has used 9/11 for political gain has been disgraceful”
I’m w/ beaufou, on that take.
and, w/ wally. this: “this is my life I’m spending here. My time is my life and it is more valuable than what they offer” to shorten the sentiment– you know, to save on paper~– could be printed out, and well-applied to most of our programming..
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
i worked closely with rudy after the 9/11 attacks as part of a non-profit consortium to help victims of the attacks. his leadership during this unprecedented crisis filled an important void and enabled many of the various recovery efforts to proceed much smoother than otherwise. hillary and chuck on the other hand were next to worthless. as BR points out this is far different than his ideologies on the markets and regulation.
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I think RG was the just about the perfect mayor for NYC….before and during 9/11.
It takes a major league asshole to run a town like that….especially when you consider the shape NYC was in when he took office. You might not like the guy….but he was exactly what NYC needed.
I think RG finished last because he dared to touch the pink 3rd rail of GOP politics….He didn’t hate gays enough.
Of course he’s clueless on the financials….he’s at heart a Party Man….have you heard ANY intelligence coming from ANY GOP politician lately??
September 22nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm
PS….RG’s libertarian views on gays and abortion DOOM him in the GOP. They will trot him out on the anniversary to wave the flag and rap on the Dems and run out the latest GOP Party Line.
Mr. Burns…..
LOL
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:26 pm
“Instead spouts the same discredited meme — that too much regulation was the problem.”
What about poor regulation? What is going on with the SEC today? What is the point of having a fig leaf of regulation? The libertarians are right on this one. Regulation gives cover to perpetrators and a false sense of safety to the “protected.” We have a hierarchy of plutocrats, ringed by a cadre of regulatory enablers and presiding over a society of lotus eaters.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Barry, I drew the same conclusion after watching Giuliani for a few minutes today on CNBC…..he appeared to be clueless (ignorant of the causes)……only discussing a “few trees in the whole forest”.
My guess is that many politicians and others who appear in front of the camera start with a political agenda (or preconceived opinion or conclusion without doing an honest analysis of all available info first) and from there they only look for information to rationalize or justify their opinions to achieve their political agenda or support their preconceived opinion. This dishonest approach angers me to no end. And yet CNBC (and others) seem to have little prudence in evaluating these people before putting them in front of a camera. They don’t care. They just want to sell….grab the attention of the viewer and hopefully keep them there, playing on the viewers’ ignorance or willingness to be open to or accept blindly what some of these idiots say. Our society is based so much on blind faith in others with honesty and a related search for the truth shoved in the closet by those exercising blind faith in others. I realize we don’t have time to research all the topics being discussed and can’t all be experts or near experts on such topics….it’s impractical and virtually impossible. We are bees in the hive so to speak.
I appreciate a more honest approach of analyzing as much information as possible then drawing a conclusion based on all the available information at the time, as evidenced by the owner of this blog and his contributing writers and some others.
Giuliani may have just been looking for some food(attention) to feed his ego and let that take precedence over his exercising prudent discretion in commenting on the crisis. He could have just said: “That subject is outside the scope of my expertise and I am not fully qualified nor that well informed to discuss these matters.”
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:34 am
FDNY and NYPD leadership will never let him forget the bumbling leadership when for years he failed to get the two services the proper tools to communicate. When Blackberries were impervious to 9-11 issues in the financial world, Rudy left his bravest and finest with useless intercoms when the call went out from command to evacuate the Towers…lots of the 343 were clueless to death.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Guiliani’s argument against energy policy on the show was that “it would create fifty new buildings in Washington.”
That is the sort of cracker barrel simplification that people need to shred when they hear it.