Quotes of the day

The truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind.--Emily Dickinson

My 401(k) is now a 201(k).--Governor David Paterson

The economic situation is apparently so grim that some experts fear we may be in for a stretch as bad as the mid seventies. When Microsoft and Apple were founded.--Paul Graham

I'm not sure why the media never calls out politicians when they talk about fiscal responsibility. Lucy always pulls the football away. You would think they would have enough pride to stop playing the part of Charlie Brown.--Jon Henke

I’ve never seen a political campaign as hostile to free speech as that of Obama. It’s not hard to read between the lines and think he’s itching to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.--Steve Bainbridge

The media needs a narrative of villains, victims, and heroes. That is why the dominant narrative has greedy executives and right-wing deregulators (villains), even though capital requirements were what drove securitization. That is why the dominant narrative has homeowners burdened by mortgages, when in fact more than 15 percent of mortgage loans in recent years were for non-own-occupied homes. Moreover, even the owner-occupants were speculators, in the sense that they put almost nothing down. Trying to paint as a victim someone who put nothing down and got a big house to live in as a result is really stretching things. Finally, the media wants Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke to be heroes. In fact, they are increasing the discrepancy between concentrated power and dispersed knowledge.--Arnold Kling

The claim that this crisis was caused by "deregulation" is a claim that government needs to exercise more power. Right now, that is the conventional wisdom of the establishment. There is no mainstream newspaper or politician raising any doubts about the wisdom of increasing government power. The free market is now a fringe phenomenon, and those of us who support it are irrelevant.--Arnold Kling