Ben Stein's Diary
Nice Work, Mr. Paulson
An excerpt from the most recent installment of Ben Stein’s Diary.
This excerpt is taken from the latest Ben Stein’s Diary, now available in The American Spectator’s end-of-year December 2008/January 2009 issue.
Tuesday
Up in the morning and off to ATL to fly to Austin, Texas. As
usual, I was in the last row of first class. As usual, the
mothers with crying babies were in the first row of coach behind
me. I’ve gotten so I feel a bit on edge if I do not hear those
crying babies behind me. But why do the airlines do it that way?
What’s the point of torturing us first class flyers with that
endless crying? Maybe the kids have more legroom that way so they
can kick our seats.
Anyway, I got to Austin and went to my hotel room at the Four Seasons. Really nice hotel overlooking Lake Ladybird, named for LBJ’s late wife, a true saint and a believer in beautification. No one but me remembers this, but also a willing and eager participant in one of the most crooked empire-building deals of all time. That was when LBJ, as a powerful member of the Senate, got the Federal Communications Commission to shower TV and radio licenses on Ladybird and him. On a salary of about $25,000 a year, he assembled an empire worth hundreds of millions or maybe billions. Good old-fashioned graft. Now lobbyists cannot even take a Senator out to lunch. What a difference! But do we get better laws now? I wonder. I hope so.
Still, LBJ deserves credit for helping, mandating changes in civil rights legislation, change that has made possible our first partly black President, whom I expect to be elected a few weeks after I write this. I do not expect Senator Obama to be able to accomplish anything at all. But I do think that black people should feel that one of their own is Chief Magistrate. They have been feeling bad for so long, it’s time they felt good. Well, I guess the ones at the BET show feel good, but the others don’t. Or some of them don’t. Anyway, you get my point. The problems this country faces are basically not solvable by government, so at least for ceremonial reasons, why not have a President who cheers up a long dispossessed part of the electorate?
Actually, I shouldn’t say that. Government can do a lot about the current financial crisis. In fact, after my nap, I went out to a country club to speak to a large group of financial people about how government started this crisis. They started it by mandating home loans to people without credit worthiness, then made it worse by not regulating or banning credit default swaps arranged by people without any insurable interest in the bonds they “insured.” Now, government can cure the crisis by guaranteeing solvency of inter-bank loans and by sharply curtailing liability under credit-default swaps. They are also going to need a real stimulus package of major size.
Of course, instead, under that imbecile, Henry M. Paulson, we get state socialism of banks and investment banks. The bailout has morphed from being a help to borrowers in Muncie to being an immense life raft for Paulson’s buddies on Wall Street. This is a last, desperate act of rapine against the American people by Mr. Paulson and I do not like it at all. Yes, give them loans they have to repay. Yes, underwrite their loans. But don’t buy them and continue to let their executives loot the system. Why on earth should a farmer in eastern Washington state have to prop up Goldman Sachs with his hard-earned money?
I really do not understand why there is no revolution. The bailout was sold as a way to stabilize the mortgage situation, i.e., money for banks to allow them to keep lending to homeowners. Now it’s a rescue package for billionaires in Greenwich. How come no one is even saying, “boo!” about this?
So, I talked to these nice people and then we had some long talks afterwards. We actually had some long talks before, too. I spent a long, long time visiting with a man who had been three years ahead of me at Yale Law School. He’s a lawyer and investment advisor in Birmingham. He told me how badly many of the city’s most prominent families are being hit by the collapse of the regional banking sector. It was deeply upsetting.
Friday
An astounding day. I awakened at 5 a.m. YES! Five a.m. EDT, which
is 2 a.m. my time in Los Angeles. I staggered to the airport and
flew, dead asleep, to Minneapolis. There I went to a super
trendy, ultra-hip hotel called “The Graves 601” and took a nap.
Then I talked to some more financial people, and then had lunch
with them. They were lovely folks who, rightly, are concerned
about Americans’ retirement prospects. How is a generation of
boomers who were ill prepared before going to retire now that
their savings have been cut in half or so by the stock market
crash? Nice work, Henry M. Paulson, for not doing the smart thing
right away but instead letting world confidence in financial
markets simply vanish. Has there ever been a worse Treasury
Secretary than Mr. Paulson? I don’t think so.
(This excerpt is taken from the latest Ben Stein’s Diary, now available in The American Spectator’s end-of-year December 2008/January 2009 issue.)
About the Author
Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.
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peter mohan| 12.2.08 @ 7:51AM
I was just looking at some old (2007/08) YouTube videos where Mr. Stein was ridiculing Peter Schiff for his statements that the sub-prime loan business could bring this country down. Ben and Larry Kudlow practically called Schiff un-American for suggesting that our busines model had failed. Now all I see is Mr. Stein screaming for more bailout bucks. What a difference a year makes!
Kingfish | 12.2.08 @ 8:37AM
Exactly. Ben RIDICULED Mr. Schiff. In fact, here is the video: Subprime is a "tiny blip or the Market Ticker had its own post about it: More public spending
Can't have it both ways.
PolishKnight| 12.2.08 @ 10:51AM
I like Mr. Stein, but his griping about "first class fliers" being disturbed by kicking babies, and hanging out at country clubs, sounds amazingly elitist and sets a context for his whole entry as being out of touch with normal Americans despite his sincere desire otherwise. Indeed, us folks who rent our homes and fly coach class could have told him that a market correction in real estate was inevitable when 3 bedroom ranches in suburban metro areas were commonly going for $500K (and still are! Ben, the RE market has a LONG way to go before bottom!)
Finally, I don't give any credit to LBJ for so-called civil rights legislation that actually exacerbated racism by redirecting it against whites and men in the name of "affirmative action." While half-white Obama is president, millions more black men are now in prison and most black families are fatherless. Is that progress, Ben?
dave| 12.2.08 @ 11:03AM
I'm confused. Just the other day I saw Cavuto and Stein screaming at each other. Stein was shouting his support of the bailouts. Yet, in his diary, which predates his appearance on Cavuto, he's critical of the bailouts, or at least their architect Paulson. So what happened to change Stein's mind?
And I agree with an earlier poster about Stein's elitism. I have been a huge Stein fan for more than a decade, but am increasingly unimpressed.
L. Ross| 12.2.08 @ 11:32AM
I still love Mr. Stein from that great, great show, "Win Ben Stein's Money." For what it's worth, I've never paid for a first class seat, but I have gotten to ride up there several times (I'm a former airline pilot.)
Ben's complaint about being kicked in the seat back as a child screams right behind him doesn't arise because he thinks he is better than anyone, but rather because he has paid a substantial premium to not be kicked in the back of his seat, and have small, screaming children sit directly behind him.
I know that when I get a great rate on a ticket and ride in coach, I'm basically in a cattle car. People in first class pay about three times as much for their ticket, but they don't arrive any earlier than I do, they don't get much at all for the hundreds and hundreds of extra dollars they spent other than the hope that they can be comfortable and get some rest on the flight. Ben is just grousing about having wasted his money on that ticket, since he was basically having a coach experience.
Regarding the bailouts, we can't even predict the weather more than about 5 days out with any accuracy. In an economy made up of billions of consumers world wide, and about 300 million here in the U.S., why does anyone think they can predict the results of bags of money airlifted into just a few hands. Put another way, the economy is fouled up to the tune of approximately 3 trillion dollars. We're talking a 700 billion odd right now to help stabilize. If you needed $10,000 to make your bills and I tossed you two grand, you are still in a heap of hurt.
We have a buch of egg-head types trying out their favorite hypothesis on the global economy right now, with no solid scientific data to back them up. It's not like you get to run an experiment on the global economy just so you can test out the accuracy of your pet theory. Everyone is doing things that seems to make sense to them, but won't necessarily work. This is because they don't have a large enough body of data to be able to predict the outcome of their economic tinkering. If they did, we wouldn't be here in the first place. Let's just admit it. Nobody knows what they are doing, and chances are we are at best wasting money, and at worst, making the current situation worse by continuing our current bail out policy.
Tom Wasney| 12.2.08 @ 11:42AM
Unfortunately, Mr. Stein has been discredited based on his ridicule of Mr.Schiff, who as it turns out was correct in exposing the coming financial meltdown.
If Mr.Stein was wrong on the big issue then naturally we question all other of his economic opinions.
PolishKnight| 12.2.08 @ 12:10PM
I know where you're coming from Mr Ross, but Ben's entry is full of hanging out with people who live in a different universe. Consider him finding it "upsetting" that the most "prominent families" are being hit hard by the crisis. What does that mean exactly? That they might have to... fly business class? Or downsize to a "holiday" in the Miami rather than Gstaad? I honestly don't know and that's why I find glimpses of their lives and thinking through his diary entries fascinating.
FYI: I've flown business and coach class and agree that it can be frustrating to sit in an otherwise great class level but next to the lavatory or in front of the screaming kids. Sitting in the back of coach is also bad since there are also children placed there as well as the last place they bring the meals so. Best seats? Window just behind the wing. Ben, come to business class or even economy plus and sit with us! We may not know Latin or how to play polo, but we can be fun too!
PolishKnight| 12.2.08 @ 12:22PM
Waterloo.
I'm thinking of that term to describe the bailout because it dragged so many reputations down including Ben Stein's.
Consider McCain: His "maverick" approach was to suspend his campaign to hang out with the Democrats, including Obama, and push through an additional 150 billion worth of pork for a nebulous bill he didn't even read! What a disaster!
In hindsight, imagine if he had opposed the bailout (or asked to shrink it down to $200 billion of immediate funds and trash earmarks) and after the bad bill passed, the economy continued to tank. Mr. Maverick would have been bapitized rather than sunk by the economic woes that followed. Sadly, he was a good 'ol boy who didn't want to rock-the-boat and look at where it got him?
Finally, Tom and Ross, as much as I enjoy teasing elitists for being out of touch with basic economic realities such as the cost of a median home in the Los Angeles metro area, I know a lot of working class people who were convinced that real estate could only go up and that they just had to buy into an interest only subprime loan on a $500K SFH before it was too late. Listen, I only pay that much for a home in the suburbs when my name is Carrington or Ewing and it better have more than 3 bedrooms!!!
Roger D. McKinney| 12.2.08 @ 1:07PM
Don't ridicule the suffering of the wealthy. Rush Limbaugh reported that many of them have had to quit eating gourmet meals on their private jets and have resorted to sandwiches and chips. Other have had to demean themselves by sending employees into Wal-Mart to shop for them.
james wilson| 12.2.08 @ 1:30PM
If Mr. Stein is wobbling back and forth like a prizefighter ready to go down but not sure which direction that is, how many at the top are not? Not good.
For many, the new retirment goal is going to be 70. I said goal.
It hasn't sunk in yet, but it's all occured in some recess of the boomer brain.
Michael| 12.2.08 @ 2:26PM
Meanwhile, I am quietly saving my money, investing wisely in gold, IRA, money market, ect., and waiting for that 4,000 plus point crash in the stock market that IS going to happen sooner or later. When there are riots in the cities, I will be found quitely on top of my mountain behind my barbed wire barricades with books, bottled water, military rations, and 1912 Vickers .303 machine gun.
Michael L. Hauschild| 12.2.08 @ 2:49PM
Stein beau coup dinkey dow. Economist same same cultural geographer.
Brian B| 12.2.08 @ 2:53PM
Re: L. Ross' comment about Ben's complaint about crying babies. If this was the first or only instance of Ben's whining L' Ross would have a point, but Ben's diary has, since its inception, consisted in large part of Ben whining about his latest cold, his dog's latest cold, his son's latest cold, uncomfortable shoes or taxis or airline seats, not getting enough sleep, getting too much sleep, tough steaks, rude waitresses, ad infinitum.
He usually redeems himself by mentioning how great the USA is or how much tougher our soldiers have it, but honestly, it's his readers who should be complaining about having to listen to Ben crying like a baby.
Derrick| 12.2.08 @ 4:53PM
Maybe his whining is entertaining? Seems like his diary interests enough people to read and comment on it.
jr| 12.2.08 @ 6:25PM
Lemme see -- wasn't Paulson appointed by Jorge Bush, the globalist, invader of countries without provocation, open borders, trade deficit, etc.?
Dai Alanye | 12.2.08 @ 7:48PM
While I sincerely sympathize with Ben's chagrin at those unfeeling plebeians in coach, in regard to his financial analyses I have noted one unsettling theme over the years. Whenever Ben or his family loses money, it is always the fault of someone else--usually a dishonest, unscrupulous, evil-minded individual.
My problem, on the other hand, is that I only ever seem to have myself to blame.
Alan Brooks| 12.2.08 @ 9:14PM
status is all that really matters, not wealth.
Money is just the means to status.
Tim O'Neill| 12.2.08 @ 10:32PM
My regard for Mr Stein vanished on Oct 29th when, as a guest on Craig Ferguson's show he slandered Gov Palin for her looks and derided her choice for VP. He claimed she resembled to a tired street walker, this valiant leader and mother of a soldier in Iraq. Even Mr Ferguson was astounded at his crude attacks. Gov Palin gave the McCain campaign a pulse, as was just proven again in Sen Chambliss' victory in Georgia. Mr Stein has become bereft of honor and sense.
Ben Harv| 12.3.08 @ 11:12AM
Ben Stein has zero credibility. The guy is a joke. Go watch the YouTube video where is ridicules Peter Schiff and then tell me why we are even giving the guy a voice.
ruth| 12.3.08 @ 8:14PM
Stein said that about Sarah Palin? His senility is showing.
CHRIS| 12.3.08 @ 10:47PM
One sentence....Paulson and the Wall Street crooks have played the ponzi game, creditors pushed consumers with teasers rates, and many Americans fell for it. Hey, New York bankers and traders, suck it up. Enjoy the recession. Cleveland, Buffalo, and the rest of flyover country are already in it.
Carol Baker | 12.4.08 @ 3:03AM
"Stein beau coup dinkey dow. Economist same same cultural geographer."
Michael, this made me laugh, but please
translate it for me...
Michael L. Hauschild| 12.4.08 @ 8:40PM
I am a Physical Geographer, retired, and have very little use for the post-modernistic, iconography based, hypocritical nonsense taught (preached) in several of the graduate departments that employed me. The "beau coup dinky dow" is from my stint in the land of bad things, it translates "very crazy" in Pidgin Vietnamese.
ruth| 12.5.08 @ 4:44PM
"The land of bad things", my brother had other choice descriptions of his stint in Vietnam. Most of them are unprintable.
Ms. Know| 12.6.08 @ 9:56PM
The elitist illuminati and Paulson need to release that money for what they said, and not for the rich automakers.
Scott A Joseph, MD| 1.20.09 @ 7:38PM
Be grateful for the crying babies, Mr. Stein. They will change your nappies in the Nursing Home, pay for your Social Security, and defend your senile carcass.
Try not being a German in your attitude to children, but a Jew.
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