The American Spectator : Houston, We’ve Got a Problem

Text Size

Houston, We’ve Got a Problem

By Ben Stein from the April 2011 issue

We really are pretty far gone.

Friday
Here I am in Houston. I flew here on a Continental flight last night. It was an absolutely perfect flight. There was even great food -- yummy mushroom soup and a cheeseburger. I have never had a well-prepared cheeseburger on an airplane before, but this one was darned good. I sat next to someone I have completely forgotten, so he must have been fine. The people in front of me hardly put their seats back at all, the usual curse of my existence on an airplane, and I arrived in Houston feeling happy.

At the gate was a young man named Gary who had been sent to make sure I didn't get lost. He was a high school physics and chemistry teacher and quite realistic about the crisis in American education. He teaches at a school that is almost all African American and Hispanic.

He told me the kids have such chaotic home lives, live in such turmoil, and are often so drugged they can barely think straight. Their classrooms are unruly and undisciplined and far too many of them arrive in school exhausted and chemically loaded.

Nevertheless, said he, occasionally one comes out with quite a smart answer to a chemistry question. He was a kind, caring guy, and I was impressed that he was earning a few extra dollars working as a greeter at the airport.

We were picked up by a driver in an electric cart who took us through the airport at a breakneck pace. He kept calling out, "Cart coming through" and then he would say "move left" or "move right" and the passengers on the concourse did just as he said. He had an amazingly authoritative voice. Commanding, but not insolent or rude.

Gary noticed it, too. It was one of the most unusual voices I have ever heard. A perfect voice for a field marshal.

("Croyez-vous la parole d'un Rosenthal ou d'un Marechal?" asks Erich von Stroheim of a French aristocrat who is a POW in a WWI German prison camp along with a wealthy Jewish fellow named Rosenthal.

The aristocrat says something like, "Ca vaut la même de la mienne," which means, "It's as good as mine." I know I have the French wrong. Maybe some kind reader will correct me.)

However, the voice was at Houston George H. W. Bush airport, not in Europe on a battlefield.

A capable driver whisked me to the J. W. Marriott Hotel in downtown Houston where my pals Joe and Ray Lucia were waiting for me. We went off to a restaurant called Del Frisco. We had a fairly good meal. I noted with great pleasure that the clientele at this very expensive restaurant was extremely racially mixed. Everyone was getting along with everyone else and it was swell.

When I was a child growing up in Maryland and D.C., it was unheard of to see African American customers at high-end restaurants. Come to think of it, it was in New York, too. It makes me happy indeed that blacks and whites enjoy the restaurants together and all in a great mood. This is amazing progress that never gets talked about.

Then back to my room to ruminate on the economy. I am speaking about it in the morning. I had to navigate through an immense crowd of Syrian Maronite Christians, who are a presence in Houston. They had been having a big party at the hotel. They were well dressed and pleasant, and why not? Finally, I got to my room and started writing. I find I think better as I am writing.

A few thoughts on the economy:

1. The recession was caused by human error, by the banks, by the borrowers, by the Fed, by the Treasury. Despite overwhelming evidence that you must never let a large bank fail in a crisis, Bernanke and Paulson let Lehman fail. This was as big a mistake as has ever been made in finance. There are still a lot of confused humans out there in positions of high power.

2. The recovery was swift in the finance sector, and TARP was a great piece of work. Credit where it's due, to Paulson and Bernanke, who thought it up and put it into play. I am well aware that many of the same people with whom I share beliefs about the sanctity of life and about Mr. Obama's contempt for the Constitution loathed TARP. But I am not running for office and, with great respect to those fine people, TARP was an immense success. It stabilized the whole financial system at trivial cost to the taxpayers.

Page: 1 2 3 >

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.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (107) | Leave a comment

Dee See| 4.29.11 @ 6:34AM

NICE article.

Meanwhile, as Fukishima has unquestionably
surged into being, by miles, the greatest
nuclear world radiation disaster in human history
-----------------------NO COVERAGE.

Can we all say -----'EUGENICS friendly'?

---Once more, without the giggling!

GOOD!

"If the watchman sees the danger,
and blows not the trumpet
---their blood be upon him."
-EZEKIEL

NOW see if you can stay beyond the giggles
---even you in Seattle! and New York!

Grzmlyk| 4.29.11 @ 8:43AM

Where'd I put my butterfly net?

RCV| 4.29.11 @ 11:54AM

I'm with you on this one, Grzmlyk.

Steve A| 4.29.11 @ 12:47PM

Grz & RCV on the same page. Life is good. I'm going to take the rest of the day off & celebrate!

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.29.11 @ 7:37AM

Stating that TARP worked is one of those statements that is hard to challenge on the surface. After all, the funds were repaid to the taxpayer. What is often not mentioned is that many banks were forced to take the money and then repay it. Was it really that successful? Did it save the markets? There are still many who believe that TARP simply postponed the inevitable.

If TARP was really that good, it was good for the banks and not the public. It did little to help the public overall. In fact, why not cut out TARP which benefited bankers who engages in risky and possibly criminal behavior and just send $10,000 to every family in America, thereby cutting out the middlemen?

Here are some salient comments on TARP which shows it was not that good of a program and was subject to the whims of politics, not the whims of economics:

Comment 1, from a Keynesian economist:

Dean Baker, a Keynesian economist who nonetheless can smell a rat, couldn't believe that the New York Times couldn't find any critics of TARP in its congratulatory write-up. Baker explained,

[If the NYT had found some critics], and they talked to them for their article on the end of the TARP, the critics likely would have told the NYT that the TARP preserved Wall Street as we know it. Had the market been allowed to do its magic, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and many other fine institutions would have been bankrupt. This would have redistributed more than a trillion dollars of wealth from the shareowners, the creditors, and the top executives to the rest of the country.
By providing them with loans at below-market interest rates, the TARP and the much larger Fed and FDIC bailouts, allowed the banks to survive the crisis created by their own recklessness. This was like giving away food during a famine. The banks have repaid the food with interest now that the harvest has come in, but to pretend that we did not do them an enormous favor at enormous cost to taxpayers (we could have rescued others with these loans) is absurd.

Comment 2:

Apparently, there was a similar program to TARP during the Depression, it was paid back, and the economy went nowhere:

To take just one example, we can go look up in Wikipedia to learn that the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was established in the Hoover Administration in 1932 and "gave $2 billion in aid to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, farm mortgage associations, and other businesses." The article then adds, "The loans were nearly all repaid." See, the taxpayers made out like bandits back in the 1930s, too!

Comment 3:

Tim Geithner claimed TARP helped with business loans. Read this:

Yes that's right, commercial and industrial loans at all commercial banks were at an all-time high … right when TARP was implemented. And then they fell like a stone. This doesn't prove that loans would have been higher in the absence of TARP, but it should make us pause when we hear how great the program was in getting credit to small businesses.

Comment 4:

And here's the conclusion:

Conclusion

The TARP was crooked from the very start, using taxpayer funds to bail out some of the world's richest people from their own foolish investments. The claims that it made taxpayers money are unfounded. Even worse, TARP taught investment bankers an important lesson: During a boom, make as much money as you can, no matter how short-term the profits will be. When the bubble pops, the Treasury and Fed will be there with a taxpayer-funded pillow.
http://mises.org/daily/4762

JimP| 4.29.11 @ 7:54AM

Amen, Bill. Thanks for posting this.

Big Tony| 4.29.11 @ 9:15AM

Well said, in other words "Private Profits and Public Losses" I believe it would have been better to have a federal tax holiday for a year or 2. But our political class will always bail out their cronies with our money. It's no wonder so many people would rather live off such a corrupt system than contribute to it.

Unfortunately people like Mr. Stein are only in favor of a "free market" when it effects the common man and not the big money folks and politically well connected.

Vern Crisler| 4.29.11 @ 9:32AM

I think Ben's problem is that when it comes to economics, he is a pragmatist. He doesn't appear to believe there are economic laws. He seems to think that if it works, government should do it. There's no end of mischief that can result from such a viewpoint.

Occam's Tool| 4.29.11 @ 12:57PM

The problem with Ben is that he is an ATTORNEY who believes America is UNDERTAXED. With all due respect to RCV, that's a major problem. When he's not slapping shrinks around, Ben bloviates like an idiot on the economy.

He is absolutely right about Hollywood's ignorance regarding our Defenders, however. Reading Ben is like exploring a sewer system for discarded diamonds. Sometimes they're there, but you're still in the sewer.

Willaboy| 4.29.11 @ 2:44PM

Well put!

Quartermaster| 4.29.11 @ 7:28PM

The bill has not come due for TARP as yet. When it comes, it will be a doozey.

mames| 4.29.11 @ 9:53AM

Oh and there is that pesky constitution that TARP and the bailout fully violated. Ben, has finally checked out and his ramblings are no longer cute or founded in reality.

JP| 4.29.11 @ 7:38AM

Ben's happy because Bernecke reinflated the stock market with easy money. And while TARP may have "stabelized" the banks (ie Wall St), it has done nothing for the real estate market, which continues to sag and may bring down many of those banks which benefited from TARP. But, Ben;s investments have recovered, and he is happy.

Funny, how he never once mentioned the spikes in commodities that the Fed's actions have caused. I suppose Ben is with all of those economists, and pundits who cover for the Fed. For the last few months a growing list of economists from both sides are defending the Fed. And despite millions of families that now spend 15-25% more for food and energy, these people can say with a straight face there is no inflation. And they have all of the stats, charts, and graphs to back them up. Yes Ben, the world is in trouble. It has gone insane.

Stormzeye| 4.29.11 @ 7:43AM

Ben, do yourself a favor and consult with "Dee See" regarding his views on economic theory. He seems to have a great deal more common sense and insight than you in these matters so I'm sure you'll benefit.
Thanks again for sharing the "good life" with us.

JimP| 4.29.11 @ 7:50AM

“Supply-side economics, which says that cutting taxes by a dollar will generate so much economic growth that it soon produces more tax revenue than it loses. This never had any data to back it up and still doesn't. It has thrown the whole Republican Party out of the arena of commonsense Eisenhower Republicanism, and this is a bad thing. It leads us Republicans into all kinds of dangerous neighborhoods we don't want to be in. It has been an immense contributor to the scary deficits we now face.”

This is factually incorrect and has been known for two decades now. Reagan's supply side tax cuts doubled federal tax revenues by 1990. There has never been ANY argument or debate about this FACT. The deficit was caused by too much spending. Every Reagan budget was literally pronounced "Dead on arrival" by Tip O'Neil and the Democrats who controlled Congress throughout Reagan's two terms. Was Reagan partly responsible for the deficit spending during his two terms. Yes. That does not mean supply side economics is to blame for deficits? No. Does Ben seriously think federal revenue would have shot up like it did without the the Reagan tax cuts and stuck with Eisenhower Republicanism like we had under Nixon and Ford? Ben Stein has gone off his rocker.

http://www.heritage.org/Resear.....s2002.ashx

JimP| 4.29.11 @ 7:56AM

My apology for the incorrect grammar in my comment. I think it is still understandable, however.

mames| 4.29.11 @ 10:09AM

BENNY BOY:

Of COURSE supply side works and the data is there for anyone with an active mind to see. I prefer "trickle around". Even if the rich do nothing but spend their money on themselves someone has to make their toys and those someones are employed doing so. Of course the rich don't just spend on themselves they invest and that in which they invest produces products and jobs. The more of OUR INCOME all of us keep the better we all are. Of course this view is wholly American based in the views of our founders and codified in the Constitution so socialists hate it. Socialist like Obama who has openly called the constitution a document of "negative rights" meaning it does not allow for government to invade private freedom so that pigs like him can run our lives. The government that governs least governs best - jefferson. Real Americans let people be free. Faux intellects like you want to steal other's money and spend it on your perceived "noble" causes. Do what you will with your money and keep your thieving hands off mine. Ands take your meds or get some soon.

play nice| 4.29.11 @ 1:36PM

" Some major economic reforms taken by the new Government (Egypt) since 2003 include a dramatic slashing of customs and tariffs. A new taxation law implemented in 2005 decreased corporate taxes from 40% to the current 20%, resulting in a stated 100% increase in tax revenue by the year 2006".

From Wiki

JimG| 5.4.11 @ 11:37AM

Well Put. Ben's gone nostalgic and balmy.

SPQR| 4.29.11 @ 7:53AM

Ben- This is the second time you have recently wrote about being driven in a cart at an airport. Did you have an accident? Are you crippled? I hope you are not like the 95% of people who use a handicap parking pass and have no need for same.

Pecos Pete| 4.29.11 @ 8:32AM

Mr. Stein is a famous person and deserves a cart ride. Mr. Stein is a member of the ruling class and deserves a cart ride. Mr. Stein rides airplanes first class and deserves a cart ride.

Mr. Stein's good life precludes seeing the other end of the spectrum.

al| 4.29.11 @ 8:37AM

Glad somebody elose recognizes an imperious elitist fraud who thinks he's in touch with the "commoners" when they see one, PP.

Peter McGrath| 4.29.11 @ 10:12AM

Stein really disappoints, here, and reveals a disconnect between his privileged existence as an investor / entertainer and what millions of Americans are going through, right now, because of endemic corruption at the highest levels of government and finance.

Has Mr. Stein been forced to fork over $60.00 to fill a gas tank, or purchase a gallon of milk (nearing $5 in Florida)? Has he visited the urban WalMarts, where nearly every single customer is paying with a so-called "EBT" credit card (i.e., food stamps)?

Has he seen the worsening urban blight in every major American city, about which our "Black" President has done exactly nothing to alleviate? Mr. Stein - the graduation rate in Detroit Public Schools still hovers around 30% - and "we've got a problem" with glib Hollywood Stars and Starlets not giving props for our troops who are fighting for what ... exactly ... the local Mullah's power to murder anyone who converts to Christianity?

Stein's musings are the product of an insulated lifestyle, and should be taken about as seriously as a 'Cathy' comic strip, or something Bill Maher might say.

What crap. AmSpec readers deserve better.

mames| 4.29.11 @ 10:12AM

Stien, a lawyer, writer, actor and not good at any of them. A jack of all trades and lousy at all of them. A sad old man in love with himself.

Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:14PM

Don't forget---a crappy economist, as well.

Old Soldier| 4.29.11 @ 7:53AM

"The Obama stimulus plan has had questionable results, at best." Are you kidding? No question about the results. As a raid on the Treasury to pay off Democratic interest groups it was a smashing success.

It also bankrupted the country and sacrificed my kids' future. It has been as successful as FDR's New Deal so far.

As for our "recovery", you might see it - the rest of us don't. We are just in between recessions right now. Those of us non-millionaires are suffering from inflation / gas prices, taxes, regulations, and the knowledge that things aren't going to get better for at least 2 years. Meanwhile, they might get much worse.

Pat Spooner| 4.29.11 @ 8:36AM

Old Soldier, you have hit a home run with your comments!

mames| 4.29.11 @ 10:13AM

Right on the money. Ben is in a state of atrophy.

martin j smith| 4.29.11 @ 8:06AM

Perhaps I am a simpleton--and that is fine--but our economic woes are a result of many decades--of both Political Parties spending more than we had. Now we have two apparently conflicting ideas--keep spending more and dig ourselves a bigger grave or try to get out of this by changing that pattern--and cutting. Surely at the very least there are lots of redundencies that can be cut among other things--but beyond that we are broke. One Party wants to keep chugging ahead with the same old spending. The other is to afraid ( in regards their leadership and main line Republicans ) to offend anyone and will do little. Meanwhile we get warning from S&P and IMF.

Bernanke and Geithner ( the tax cheat ) dig our Dollar into the ground and want a Debt Ceiling raise without a ceiling. This is the way I see the mess we are in. Oh Yea--BHO refuses to Drill and food,fuel and other commodity prices shoot up, Good job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Richard V| 4.29.11 @ 8:15AM

Mr. Stein,

Your French is almost perfect. The more correct statement is as follows: "Ça vaut la même que la mienne". Thanks for your blog.

Richard

Tim the Enchanter| 4.29.11 @ 11:15AM

What's that mean in English?

play nice| 4.29.11 @ 1:41PM

"I fart in your direction?"

Richard V| 4.29.11 @ 1:58PM

Tim,

It means "It's as good as mine" (just as Mr. Stein translated above).

Richard

Louis Jenkins| 4.29.11 @ 8:25AM

TARP was good ? I'm ready to never read an article of your's again. As spoken above, man, you must be in bad shape, getting a cart to ride in every time you go to the airport.

Mike W| 4.29.11 @ 8:37AM

Why exactly is Ben Stein on the TAS? Why do we care what this man thinks? It appears he would be more comfortable at the Huffington Post.

Ken in Tyler| 4.29.11 @ 9:01AM

Excellent question! I propose he be deleted post haste and the other Mr Stein (Mark) be substituted.
The cost to the citizens of all the federal intervention in the banking system cannot be measured in FRN's. The cost is in the governments growing disdain for their oath to the Constitution.

JimH| 4.29.11 @ 10:41AM

If being against abortion, unwavering support for Israel and a kind word for the troops is sufficient to be a conservative, then Ben is one.

JimH| 4.30.11 @ 7:13AM

I've been a subscriber for over 20 years. And have been reading Ben's column for all of that time. It used to be one of my favorite parts of a magazine. I admired his intelligence and modest attitude. Maybe I've changed, he's changed or both. Because now I find him a bit whiny and maudlin at times. I also find I disagree more often with his economic analyses. I still think he is a well meaning man and I like to see what he has to say.

Cpm| 4.29.11 @ 1:15PM

Because he has been wtiting Ben Stein's Diary on TAS for about 25 or 30 years, that's why.

Russ| 4.29.11 @ 8:40AM

I'm supprised that you took exception to supplyside economics, as a proven Economic principle. It was my understanding that reducing high taxes rates DOES generate more tax revenue and was proven by the likes of Mellon and Freidman thru numerous Adminsitrations.
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....mas-sowell

Jeff R| 4.29.11 @ 8:53AM

I immensely enjoy reading Ben Stein in American Spectator - since the 80s, as a matter of fact. But.....

I have to question Mr. Stein's assumption that the U.S. would suffer if GM had been allowed to fail. In fact, it still may fail. Ford's still in business. Honda and Toyota, among others, build cars and trucks here. I don't believe GM's assets would disappear overseas if GM goes under. The national security angle advanced by Mr. Stein is a bit of a red herring, in my opinion.

Obama's and the Democrats' orgy of spending on bailouts and everything else has had more than a questionable impact on the economy. I don't think all the borrowing and spending has done much. I realize the argument is put forward that Uncle Sam's binge spending helped keep the economy from going from bad to worse. But we're creeping pretty close to worse even with all the Democrats' highly partisan outlays.

I'd much rather see producers keep more of their own money and the economic environment made less uncertain and far less hostile to business. Government isn't going to pull the economy out of its decline; America's entrepreneurs, small businesses, and hard workers must. Government would best do no harm by doing less.

JP| 4.29.11 @ 9:12AM

And I'm sure people said the same thing about Studebaker, US Steel, and Braniff in earlier decades. It should also be pointed out that Ben's late father, the economist Herbert Stein, had a rather nasty disagreement with the Supplysiders 40 years ago. Herbert Stein was an outstanding economist, and I'm sure Ben is just being loyal.

However, in light of of the defecits since Clinton, I find it difficult to pin the red ink on tax cuts. Spending has increased at such a rate the last 10 years that even without the tax cuts we would be looking at over $1 trillion of red ink. For some reason Ben, who holds both a JD and advanced degrees in economics, can not understand this.

Bill| 4.29.11 @ 9:21AM

Any society that has bankruptcy laws, antitrust laws, and whose government ultimately decides that some companies, be they industrial giants or banking giants, are "too big to fail," and then uses taxpayer money to bail those businesses out, has lost sight of the values that formed the society to begin with.

We can become a command economy if we wish to, but the values of such a society conflict with the values of a society that values competition and free markets. If Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley and a host of other financial giants went bankrupt, does Mr. Stein really believe that there aren't other businesses entirely ready and eager to take their place? Or the existing giants could declare Chapter 11 and reorganize without excessive disruption. The use of taxpayer money to bail out the banks and the auto companies was entirely unneccessary and contributed to the recession.

Anthony| 4.29.11 @ 9:14AM

It was bad enough reading Stein's self absorbed drek, but now we get included a healthy dose of Krugmanism.
Wow! Obozo Motors is good for America, as opposed to a lean and mean G.M. emerging from bankruptcy, sans their burdensome labor contracts (self imposed, true). And of course, those greedy bondholders not getting F***** by Obozo, and actually getting what they paid for. How unAmerican!!!!!
Supply side economics has never been proven. Gee, that's not the way I remember the '80s under Reagan, with more money pouring into the treasury faster than the congressional whores could spend it.
Fannie and Freddie under Dodd and Frank, oh never mind!!!
Stein's agent needs to get him a gig for memory loss medication. He's taken one too many hits to the head with the other gig.

Bob Grant| 4.29.11 @ 9:18AM

I have two questions for Mr. Stein:

1.) Are we really sure GM would have disappeared if allowed to fail? ...seems to me it would have gone through the bankruptcy process emerging leaner and meaner but in much more financially. No?

2.) Mr. Stein contends that GM should have been saved for "national defense" reasons. Oh Really??? Isn't GM just an assembly plant, not a manufacturing plant? ...how much more useful would GM be in some national emergency than other assembly plants???? ....the bottom line is we manufacture noting. Not steel, not parts, nothing really. This seems like some lame argument our president would make.

Anastasia Mather| 4.29.11 @ 9:38AM

We're in recovery? Where? My husband and I are having trouble affording gas to go to work and our grocery bill keeps going up for the same things. Please tell me someone hacked his account and wrote this.

Sam Vaughn| 4.29.11 @ 9:39AM

I usually enjoy reading Ben's work and find myself agreeing with him more often than not. However, he should go back to looking for Buehler. What about the concepts of "velocity of money" - money moves faster and therefore get's taxed more often in private economy v. gov.t directed economy. What about the Laffer Curve? and Supply Side economics, sorry Ben the data IS there, it worked. What didn't work is our government continuing penchant for spending more that we take in. With all due respect, I can only assume you had a bad day prior to writing this.

Wally| 4.29.11 @ 9:40AM

God bless Ben Stein. I love reading his stuff. Have for a long time. Hate seeing the negative personal attacks in the comments. Thou shalt not covet...

Do not always agree with him. He is just plain wrong about Supply Side- works reliably, and Keynes is not unproven- its just rat hole policy, failing reliably.

Steve A| 4.29.11 @ 10:37AM

Wally, I have read every one of Big Ben's TAS offerings to date in a genuine effort to learn something. In this effort, I have come away empty handed every time. I am not sure why I continue. All I get is a steady dose of cheeseburgers, hot hostesses & shallow analysis.

Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:16PM

And very bad cheeseburgers at that. The best Cheeseburger I've ever eaten was at Caspar and Runyan's The Nook, in St. Paul, MN.

Notary Sojac| 4.29.11 @ 9:59AM

The best way to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would be to cut the lines of moral, material, and financial support that their killers receive from outside those two "nations".

Unfortunately, this would require us to face facts about nominal allies who are in fact enemies.

Can't do that, so the pissing away of our blood and treasure in the decade-long game of whack-a-mole goes on....

PolishKnight| 4.29.11 @ 10:05AM

The bailout for the auto companies was Democratic payback to unions. That's all. The worse that would have happened if the government hadn't intervened was that the companies would have gone bankrupt, the unions would have been tossed out, and then the plants bought to foreign companies which would have continued to make cars (but at a much cheaper price.)

In other words, it would have been win-win all around.

John Navratil| 4.29.11 @ 10:32AM

PolishKnight,

British Leyland failed a few years after its bail out. With the unions on the board, GM can't be expected to last. My bet is that it's gone by the 2016 elections.

emo| 4.30.11 @ 8:52PM

GM will survive. But after having rented a Dodge Avenger this weekend, I bet Chrysler will be gone by 2020.

Peter McGrath| 4.29.11 @ 10:15AM

Stein's musings are the product of an insulated lifestyle, and should be taken about as seriously as a 'Cathy' comic strip, or something Bill Maher might say.

What crap. AmSpec readers deserve better.

PolishKnight| 4.29.11 @ 10:48AM

Peter, this issue has come up before and the answer is that he's being honest unlike the left whch pretends to be caring about the "middle class." He also gives us a window into how conservatives become corrupted by the culture in DC and Wall Street.

He's friends with many power brokers in DC and these guys are probably charming personally. They're smart, well educated, privileged, and traveled. It's hard not to like most of them even as they are (sometimes unwittingly) a part of a corrupt, cronyistic system.

Socialism is so pervasive and persistent because it's fundamental philosophy: That big government can do anything, is hard to argue with. Obama can spend enough money that if piled up would go to the moon and back several times. He spends more money than stars in the galaxy. It's awe inspiring. It's like Rome. Who could have ever believed back then that a bunch of horse riding barbarians would take Rome down to it's knees?

Peter McGrath| 4.29.11 @ 12:23PM

Thanks, Mr. P, for the insight, but these "personally charming" types are enjoying their cocktails and half-decaf lattes precisely because of the diminution of the private sector through - literally - trillions of dollars of TARP and TARP-like bailouts and appalling spending, borrowing, and outright printing of monopoly money by the tyrannical Fed.

The resulting diminution of the private economy and devaluation of the dollar has, of course, resulted in unnecessary misery and dependence for millions of Americans who - themselves - would be working, prosperous and free if these charming creeps were forced to file bankruptcy, or face prosecution, for their criminally reckless behavior in manipulating the mortgage market for personal gain during the run-up. Instead, they pocketed their gains and were insulated from any retribution by guys (taxpayers) like you and me.

I appreciate Stein's honesty, but his poop does stink and, once in awhile, I'd appreciate it if he took a whiff and described the experience.

PolishKnight| 4.29.11 @ 1:29PM

Peter, funny story: My wife and I were picking up our new kitten that had just gotten spayed. She was in her carrier in the car and we passed by a horse farm and I smelled manure. I said: "I think that's the horses." I was... wrong.

A similar thing with the right is that they sometimes tend to oversimplify things and buy into pure free market economies and that the privileged wealthy are going to create jobs and produce good products at a good price. Balderdash. As human beings, they want to see H1B's and outsourcing and enjoy corporate welfare and shaft us over. I don't love them anymore than the left does.

Except... the left foolishly has been told by their priests that the great socialists are going to get rid of those elites. Nonsense. Just as the right is corrupted by Washington, the left is quickly allured into crony capitalism by the money. Chelsea Clinton didn't get that great job and husband because of her beauty and brains!

Regarding the mortgage market: The whole country was nuts. Back in 2006, everyone told me to buy a house because if I didn't, then I wouldn't be able to afford it. I asked them then who would be buying houses if I couldn't do so and they told me: "Foreign investors and rich guys who know the value of a 1 bedroom condo!" Everyone who owned a home thought they were a real estate genius and living on Southfork Ranch.

The mortgage market was, and still is, manipulated by powerful political forces which include most of the population which are homeowners that demand the government blow trillions a year to keep the bubble inflated. (All they're accomplishing is slowing down the deflation.)

Bill| 5.1.11 @ 1:47PM

As a practical matter, the leftists never say where all the money is going to come from to create the paradisical society they claim to want.

Margaret Thatcher put it best when she opined that command-system economies collapse when they run out entrepreneurs whose money they can steal. That's what makes capitalism OK: despite its excesses, it encourages the building of wealth and some of that wealth is shared by the entire society.

Joe R| 4.29.11 @ 10:39AM

I've always found Ben Stein's articles/columns to be colossal bores and wastes of time but he really outdid himself with this one.

Brian B| 4.29.11 @ 10:41AM

I love Ben, but it says a lot when I can read with bemused pleasure his incessant whining and skip over, because I cannot even stomach it, his invincibly stupid economic nonsense.

Melvin| 4.29.11 @ 10:42AM

I'm not going to pretend to be an economist. But a number of things are eating the hell out of me, that just doesn't compute.
Maybe this is because of my own ignorance or maybe it just wasn't never meant to be understood by the masses.
To me, what happened in 2008 was completely man caused. It wasn't part of a unforeseen economic apocalypse. The Great Depression however was an event, and I'm unsure in whether or not this was a man caused event or just and event that no one saw coming, and were unable to cope with it at the time.
After the Great Depression, a whole slew of legislation, and public and private oversight were enacted so it would not ever happen again.
In the 1980's we had the Savings and Loan Scandal. Definitely man caused and again a whole slew of legislation and oversight was created so that it would not ever happen again.
In 1993 House Post Office Money Laundering Scandal, with Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) and Joe Kolter (D-PA). They were accused of heading a conspiracy to launder Post Office money through stamps and postal vouchers.
2008, complete or what appeared to be a complete global banking system failure. Definitely man caused. Again legislation passed, and oversight created to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Since 1929 and after, the oversight public and private should have been so tight that a mouse wouldn't have been able so steal a crumb of cheese.
It is now 2011 and not one public or private entity has had charges of fraud, corruption, or petty theft brought before the American people. Why?
I surmise that there are a myriad of reasons; wrong policies, ineptness, to cozy of a relationship between the Wall Street, Banking Community, or outright corruption public and private as was Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) and Joe Kolter (D-PA) in the House Money Laundering Scandal.
This financial collapse just didn't happen one fine morning in 2008, it took years to be brought about, then were was the oversight that had been created since 1929 and subsequent government/private financial scandals.
Where is the accountability of person(s) not doing they're job of sounding the alarm of something financially amiss? Were these people paid off to look the other way, or were they also involved in this great fraud foisted onto the American tax payer.
There has been no public firing or financial oversight entity being brought before the court of public opinion for trial and judgment. Again I ask why?
Is this all because the system of public and private governance so thoroughly rotten and corrupt, that there is not one honest or honorable being amongst them?
We were promised investigations by the Republicans and there are none, we have a Attorney General so inept that he makes the United States Attorney General Office look like a branch office of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. No offense to the Elephants mind you.
We have important people parading before us saying, "This was good for us, TARP saved us, Bailouts staved off Armageddon, and Wall Street recovers."
"Recovers," I look outside the window, gasoline $4.00, across the board from food to insurance, to income, property and sales taxes are increasing an unsustainable rates.
If this is what it takes to recover, I don't want anything to do with it. But this is beside the point.
Dammit, people I have lost complete faith and trust in our government, and the Crony Capitalism that lays in the same bed beside that government. I still believe in the Free Market and Capitalism, but not with the bastards who are currently running it.
I still believe in the small Company I work for, and I still believe in my friend who runs the small Korean market down the street who puts in 14 hour days, seven days a week with his wife.
The government asks me, "Well, what do you want then?" You know what I really want.... I want blood, I want to see every corrupt so-in-so public and private to be publicly humiliated for corruption, the same way they humiliated the tax paying producers of this Country. I want to see them thrown out of their palatial homes, the way millions of Americans have had done to them. I want to see these corruptors drop to their knees and beg forgiveness for what they have done to millions of Americans and their children, and subsequent generations, who will end up paying.
As a producing tax payer,and as God as my witness, I swear they'll be justice brought to those who have delivered this financial ruination upon me and my fellow Americans.
I apologize for the length and at times meandering off topic, but I just had to get this off my chest. I love the hell out of Ben, but I feet what I have said, is what millions upon millions of Americans want to be said, but have no voice.

s bennett| 4.29.11 @ 10:42AM

I appreciate his consistant support of our military that's about it though.Too much mushy economics and drivel about his multiple homes.

PolishKnight| 4.29.11 @ 10:57AM

I hate to agree with the left, but they may be right on the military but for the wrong reasons.

The left is anti-military because the left is anti-America and wants to see a symbol of capitalism and freedom fall so that European socialism can take over. That's their thinking.

On the other hand, we really don't need all the military deployments that are still in place. Our bases in Western Europe? Why not close them down? In some ways, it would be interesting to see if such a closure would stoke up the cold war and maybe get the fickle socialists in Western Europe to cry for us to come back again! :-) Our middle east occupations (they aren't wars, Ben, they are now occupations!) Pull on out. And that goes for Israel too. Let 'em stand on their own. Instead of getting us cheap oil, American involvement has only worsened the situation. If we weren't there, they wouldn't have a foreign devil to blame for their internal problems.

The ONLY place I think we should stay is South Korea because that's keeping N. Korea at bay. But even then, perhaps it would make sense for the economically strong S. Korea to take over it's own defense and move on.

Since troops are needed largely for ground maneuvers, we don't need much of a standing army anymore after all that pork is cut out. Just keep a few nukes around, aircraft carriers, and subs and that's it. China doesn't want to throw away trillions of dollars attacking us.

Yes, I know this is all sacrilege here but it is truly conservative politics in the old style sense of the word. The military really is just another big government program with the left objecting to it's goals (or stated goals) rather than the means. If the USA was a socialist state invading free market countries, they'd be cheering on the spending...

Anthony| 4.29.11 @ 12:00PM

I agree about his support for the military. But if this economic voodoo crap continues from Stein, a la Krugman-lite, then I'll put my matchbook cover degree in economics against Stein's degree anytime.

Nightmare on Obama Street| 4.29.11 @ 11:08AM

The question has to be asked: What color is the sky in Mr. Stein's ruling class world? Recovery? What recovery. While most of us plebs are worrying about having a job, paying bills, having enough money just for gas, and now even food. Baron Stein is bemoaning a less than comfortable plane ride back to that bastion of reality, Beverly Hills. What a pity. Ben, get in your car and take a nice long drive through all the areas outside of Beverly Hills and maybe, just maybe, you may become aware about how desperate the stituation really is in America. It may be the shock you need to once again inhabit the real world. By the way who cares about anything Natilie Portman has to say anyway?

JP| 4.29.11 @ 11:43AM

Where I live not even 7-11 is hiring. Over 200 people showed up to apply for 5 positions at our local McDonalds. And my 16 year old son can't even get a job at the super market bagging, as men my age are now doing that. And as one person posted above, I see more and more people paying for thier groceries with the EBT debit cards. Yes, some recovery.

Steve A| 4.29.11 @ 12:44PM

When Obama took over, the car was indeed in the ditch. Now the hazard lights are flashing & we are out of gas.

Old Soldier| 4.29.11 @ 2:16PM

Ben should take a ride up to the Central Valley and have Victor David Hanson show you around. That might jolt him out of his Hollywood haze.

Fred| 4.29.11 @ 12:19PM

Herr Stein, this blog must have been done tongue in cheek because it is so wrong in so many ways, as many of the comentors have pointed out. The blog did get blood flowing and resulted in some excellent factual comments. Thanks for that.

figusja| 4.29.11 @ 12:23PM

You wonder why the media and people can do such things as ignore the obvious? But this has been implemented in the past. How do you think the Roman Senate and Caesar kept the populace happy. They gave the people the Coliseum. The gladiators killing was the entertainment of its day. Our Coliseum is our TV sets. We can sit idly by and hope Trump becomes POTUS with the world falling apart around us. Smiling the whole time. People now are exactly like the people of the Roman Empire several thousand years ago. We like to think we have evolved but we are just the same....PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Anthony| 4.29.11 @ 1:04PM

When Stein tells T.V. audiences to "get the red out", our boy from Beverly Hills ain't refering to the Red in the White House.
Hasta la vista, gang. See you all Monday.

The Jackal| 4.29.11 @ 1:21PM

Ben,

What happened to you? When did you go to the other side?

See Peter Ferrara and several others who have superbly documented supply-side tax cuts and deregulation as a boon to our economy and federal tax revenues--in the 1960s, 1980s, and to a bit of a lesser extent, 2002-07.

What didn't happen concurrently in all of these periods is spending restraint.

Again, what the hell happened to you?

Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:17PM

This is what happened to Ben:

"Luke, come over to the Dark Side..."

Louis Tully| 4.29.11 @ 1:25PM

Where do I go to get those 5 minutes back? waste...

Intelligent Design| 4.29.11 @ 1:43PM

"I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

figusja| 4.29.11 @ 2:20PM

I loved Ben for a long time until now. I thought he had some serious brains and was a little more conservative. Those points he made were weak and most of his articles seem more like diary entries than any real coherent thoughts. Most authors in American Spectator seem to put more effort in their articles.

David Shoup| 4.29.11 @ 2:47PM

Ben, what were you smoking when you wrote this?

1. "Never letting a major bank fail?" It was government pressure that helped put them in that position in the first place. The banks never should have been leveraged to make bad mortgage loans in the name of universal home ownership. We can thank Deval Patrick, who was a deputy attorney general for civil rights (or some such title) during the Clinton follies that pressured banks to make bad loans. When I worked with the young Marines, we had numerous discussions regarding military history including the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981. My scholarly opinion was that the Iranian "demonstrators", who climbed the walls of our Tehran Embassy in November 1979, should have been permitted to climb the wall. But, every demonstrator who jumped down into the Embassy compound should have been shot dead by the Marine guards. Demonstration would stop. No hostage crisis. The Marines were not permitted to do so. In fact they were underarmed with tear gas, 38 caliber revolvers, and pump shotguns loaded with bird shot. The banks should be given a clear and simple set of rules and a corporate tax rate no more than 10%. If the God of Israel only wanted 10% under the authority of Moses, then who the hell is Caesar to demand 20, 30, 40, or whatever?

2. TARP, one of the fiscally irresponsible reasons why I have little respect for George Bush. I despise such an expediture of borrowed money that will be paid back by whom and when?

3. If TARP was OK, why was Obama's stimulus not OK. I despise such an expenditure of borrowed money that will be paid back by whom and when? (My repetition is deliberate.)

4. Auto bailout? The free market rewards success and punishes failure. The Fed does just the opposite. You didn't notice any southern auto makers needing bailouts, did you? Mercedes in Alabama, BMW in South Carolina, Toyota in Tennessee, et cetera. Why did the Rust Belt companies need a bailout? My solution: reduce regulation, eliminate stupid regulation (like the CAFE standard), and lower corporate taxes to 10%. Let the best man win.

5. Fannie and Freddie should not only be permitted to fail, they should not have existed in the first place. Where in the Constitution does the Fed get the authority, and the money, to engage in lending for ANY reason?

6. Keynesian stimulus? Ben, sit down, have a Coors Original or two, and start thinking again. Where in the Constitution does the Fed get the authority, and the money, to engage in stimulus spending? Top down economic planning did not work in Stalin's Soviet Union. Why would it work in the USA?

7. Supply side economics causing deficits? No, Ben! No! It is drunken sailor spending by the idiots in Congress and in the Oval Office, past and present, that have given us the deficits. For example, between 1975 and 1980, federal receipts doubled, but the federal debt also doubled. The government is not smart enough and does not have the authority to bet on winners and loser in the economy. Their job is to establish a fair and flat tax code to raise revenue to cover legitimate operational expenses and then to live within their means. Period. I have written these things to misguided elected officials for decades, and, of course, nothing changes. Why do I have to say this to my dear Ben Stein?

"Nevertheless, we seem to be having a recovery," you said. The reason we do is because Americans work so hard, and we are also bearing the burden of debt service on $14 trillion incurred by the pinheads in DC. The deficit spending needs to stop now, not 12 years from now. Sell off federal gold and land to clear the debt.

If I misunderstood you, please explain. You must have had a terirbly bad day, when you wrote this section of your article.

Shalom, but good sense must reign in DC or we will go the way of the Weimar Republic.

David Shoup
Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan

Nunya| 4.29.11 @ 4:37PM

David,

Excellent analysis, I couldn't agree more.

Warrior| 5.1.11 @ 3:27PM

Well done Mr. Shoup. If I may add just some small opinions of mine.

1. If the United States were to allow its military to protect its sovereign land (do I have to spell out the southern border be included?) no matter where it is located, we would not only portray the strength necessary to protect its citizens we would also save billions in education, medical and welfare dollars.

2. W, on top of his pissing all over the Constitution, allowed the country to be familiar with numbers of 1 trillion.

3. No repetition here.

4. Without GM we still would have auto manufacturing abilities. May I also point out the unions were ready to capitulate until W made it known he would not let bankruptcies occur. Our own federal government violated established bankruptcy laws without blinking and forced secured creditors to accept pennies on the dollar.

5. Fannie and Freddie should be shut down, investigated and have all bonus money that can be found confiscated from the corrupt managers and officials that profited.

6. Ben has totally lost his mind by this point and seems to have undergone some version of Stockholm syndrome.

7. There is no recovery!!!! On top of your explanation, we need to understand that injecting $1 trillion of even borrowed money was going to artificially make the economy improve for a short period. Once that money runs out, so does the illusion of recovery.

Occam's Tool| 5.17.11 @ 7:18PM

David,

are you any relation to THE General Shoup?

Nunya| 4.29.11 @ 2:48PM

Ben, do us all a favor and stop listening to your Keynesian friends and actually do some study of economics and economic history. Your thoughts on the economy and economics is pure bullsh--, you prove your ignorance by making such statements as "The whole idea behind Keynesian stimulus .....was always just a hypothesis and has never been proved and probably cannot be..." Frankly, if you actually took the time to study those countries that have tried Keynesian economics in trying to stimulate their economies (Japan comes to mind) you will see what a colassal failure Keynes' theory was. GOVERNMENTS DO NOT CREATE JOBS. They take money OUT of the economy. GOVERNMENTS ARE A COST TO THE ECONOMY. Period. They cannot create long term growth because they are taking money from one source and putting into another. They are not CREATING wealth, only transferring it. Like moving money from one hand to another--except that there is a cost to the transfer, so the receiving hand has less than the giving one.

Nunya| 4.29.11 @ 4:39PM

Sorry, apparently I can't spell "colossal".
(Note to self: must remember to proofread...)

Arizona Bob| 4.29.11 @ 2:50PM

I defer to the wise and witty Ben Stein on economics, but I am mildly perplexed at this memory of race relations.
The reference to Renoir's La Grande Illusion is somewhat misleading, which also perplexes coming from a major force in contemporary movies like Mr. Stein. The German's confusion is due not only to the fact that the character named Rosenthal is a Jew, but that the character named Marechal (played by the great Jean Gabin) is a workingman. He could have been a Negro, as there were African infantry in France's WW I army, and the German would have reacted the same way. The Frenchman's somewhat amused, but quite serious, response reflects his (or at least Renoir's) liberal (in the old fashioned sense) and republican values, and is a distant nod to Goethe's famous quip at the Battle of Valmy.
I fear our eminent chronicler is as jarred by such ideas as he seems to be by the notion that there were moneyed colored folks in New York and Washington a few decades ago.

Jeremiah| 4.29.11 @ 3:50PM

Mr. Stein, I really did enjoy this meandering piece of musings, except for one thing (and I really did enjoy it - I used to have to write daily commentaries and, oddly, the audience used to love the meandering musings even when they were not all that good...I understand now)

You should have left the bit about the lady with the dark hair on your plane back to Malibu out of the article. She professed to be a fan. Imagine how delighted she will be to discover herself mentioned in an article you wrote...until she discover it is to be mocked and dismissed. You are better than this. If it had a serious purpose it would be excusable, but it did not. Please always remember that the people you meet are real people, with real hopes and dreams and families they love. They are never to be treated as mere fodder for a dismissive bon mot. You are better than this and, thankfully, I do not believe I have ever seen such a lapse from you before. But it will bother me most of the evening. You owe the lady an apology.

Bob Grant| 4.29.11 @ 5:26PM

I believe Mr. Stein has a shtick and methinks he was playing to it.

Ed Green| 4.29.11 @ 5:58PM

RE: supply-side economics:

I'm not an economist, but I can understand a graph. Do you agree that the Laffer curve is legitimate, at least at its zero-revenue endpoints? Do you agree that between these endpoints is a maximum for revenue? Then, if the tax rate is to the right of the maximum revenue point, cutting the tax rate would necessarily increase revenue. How does Ben react to this appeal to common sense?

Susan| 4.29.11 @ 6:26PM

Ben, time to go back to the twelve steps for your new crack habit. It's the only explanation I can think of for this craptastic piece of writing.

e track from saq| 4.29.11 @ 8:48PM

One might consider the article total BS.A call to have coming the brilliant wordsmiths with their rebuttals.Economic mission statement of United States :Grease the big wheels,or is it Feed the weeds.

GBArg| 4.29.11 @ 9:47PM

So far as informative articles go, Ben Stein and Peggy Noonan make a great couple.

Dee See| 4.29.11 @ 10:47PM

---"Soon the public will be unable to reason
or indeed to see reality itself for what it is.
Soon they will expect media not only to
provide them with topics, but to do their
reasoning for them."
-Zbigniew Brzezinski
Between Two Ages
1977

---Glancing down the sycophantic entries above
we can only say ----MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Z.B.!

-------NOW, back to your Yuppie giggling.

DickF| 4.29.11 @ 11:30PM

Right on, Ben.

Who Knows?| 4.30.11 @ 4:47PM

I haven't read this iteration of the Stein family for a while, and after perusing what he shat on us just now, I can easily remember why---

HE'S got a problem---IS a problem, himself!

The essence of this dude is that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and has been living off the fame and riches from this "good birth" ever since.

His old man was a "practical" economist who these days should be rightly understood as one of the fools who helped bring America down. He was a Keynesian, steeped in the DEMAND side and eschewing the SUPPLY side.

Rent seekers abound, sadly.

Buy GOLD, and ignore the crap that such parasites as Ben Stein get to dump on us all.

Truly, in his secret "heart", this sucker is laughing his ass off that he gets to trip around as a famous AND rich American while fools actually think he's FUNNY, and WISE, and they PAY to see and hear him.

More proof that America is ALREADY over, Mr. Ben Franklin---we couldn't KEEP IT, after all.

Blegoo| 4.30.11 @ 7:53PM

First time I read Mr Stein column.
Also the last.

emo| 4.30.11 @ 8:47PM

He has been moving to the left for sometime now

emo| 4.30.11 @ 8:46PM

Problem with TARP is Bastiat's "Seen and Unseen"

Seen is the "recovery" in the financial sector and the fact most of the money was paid back. Unseen is the perverse incentives it has created. The govt will now "socialize" bad behavior in not only the financial sector but the auto industry as well. We wont know the full extent of these perverse incentives for 5-10 years.

emo| 4.30.11 @ 8:48PM

Not to mention the unseen is the economic activity and innovation lost to the govt's proping up zombies

Harcourt Fenton Mudd| 4.30.11 @ 9:22PM

Beuhler? Beuhler? Stein is a pint low of a pint. This incipid rambling and shallow thinking has run its course. Stein must be on some kind of drugs. Hosestly, put a fork in him. He is done.

Gordo| 5.1.11 @ 2:56AM

Buehler ? Buehler?

Chris Pedersen| 5.1.11 @ 8:45PM

Well Ben Stein, I will say that is one of the reasons I no longer go to the "Show" a self imposed Boycott of sorts including the main reason that most of those Idiots can't keep their vitriol, hatered, and "Conservative" Bashing to themselves.

Their recent expressions concerning the Tea Party Americans & Patriots who believe in the Constitution and every breath of what the Founding Fathers stood and died for, America!

Why would you expect them to support the Troops, our Men & Women in Uniform, when they could care less about the Truth of OUR OWN HISTORY, never calling out the [M]arxist[S]tatis[M]edia for their destain of America.

Hollywierd can Bash America, but never defend it while racking in the Big Bucks.

But not mind anymore, never again, unless a renound Conservative Actor/Actress is in the film. I'll stay home instead.

If more of America's Patriots in the Tea Party by the Millions,did the same, I'll bet they'd feel their own reccession by the Consevatives going on Strike and keeping their money for themselves, seeing as how the Loud Mouths of Hollywierd displayed what they really Are during the last several years or more.

When Moveon.org attacked General Patraeus, a Career Military Man, who devoted his life for this Country, serving under President George W. Bush with their NYT full page "BetrayUs" that was it for me.

The idiot that thought that one up should have been hauled out in an alley and had the Sh*t beat out of him until he could never think again.Left for dead. I'd have broken every finger on both hands so he could never type one letter on a keyboard again while sucking his food through a F'n straw.

That my friends is why I'll never vote for another DemoRat again. And I used to live in Chicago, all my life but not any more.

SW Misouri is the place to be where people are sane and you can shoot in self defense if your life limb,loved ones and property is in jeopardy.

Mayor Daley on the other hand could care less if you lived or died, just as long as his MOB Cohorts insulated him from prison or Bullets. The latter being the correct measure in my opinion, and I would not shed a tear. But he's retired now.

The heat of ALL the Mob Scandals and Mob convictions got to great for him. He's a Coward who ran away with his flea infested Belly and Rat Tail tucked between his legs scrathing away as most of the Dems do.

So for me, F Hollyweird and the Dems too! Thanks moveon.org you opened my eyes, Wide Open and my mind as well. Now Mark Levin is who I choose as well as talk radio as a whole. Sanity is restored with Hannity! Cured at last, Cured at last, Thank God Almighty I'm cured at last. DNC= [D]emonizing [N]ation's [C]onstitution

Seek| 5.2.11 @ 2:35PM

You can try seeing a few movies before denouncing them. Empiricism does matter.

Rich Rostrom| 5.2.11 @ 1:37AM

Ben:

TARP was a success in one direction - it relieved a liquidity crisis that could have collapsed _all_ the major banks in America. Unfortunately it was also exploited to pay off _solvency_ problems for various large, politically-connected banks and financial houses. This _did_ cost the taxpayer a lot of money - tens of billions of $.

The money moves required to stop the liquidity crisis were so gigantic that the TARP losses could be hidden in the cracks, but by normal standards they were _huge_.

Another large chunk of TARP money was given away to prop up GM and Chrysler - more precisely their unions. We'd still have a large auto industry without those bailouts. Ford took no bailout, and is profitable today all on its own. Several Japanese automakers have American operations that are profitable.

whizkid| 5.2.11 @ 3:29PM

Ben, love ya, mean it!! BUT, in a really weird way, I am thinking..." How could this guy who is so smart be so void of simple observations that he is surprised? wondering? Can't believe? Hell man-your credentials at the bottom of your article lists "Actor"--YOU ARE AN ACTOR besides a lawyer, etc. What is SO surprising about no one in Hollyweird not acknowledging the war efforts?? Ben--you had a GOOD NIGHT if they all weren't BASHING our troops, Conservatives, the rest of the usual recipients of their rage!!! THIS IS WHO THEY ARE--either completely ignorant or radical anything that the new greatest whatever is espousing today!!! Still luvya, even if you are wrong about the bailouts!!

Dee See| 5.3.11 @ 1:26AM

"We are using MASSIVE third world
immigration (mainly muslim) to destroy
British culture once and for all forever."
-TONY BLAIR
(cited by Alan Watt from the Daily Mail)

SEE Youtube: ALAN WATT
'Great Britain's Deliberate
Annihilation'

(for those skeptics among you)

AS Janet Napolitano last November secretly
signed some 80 MILLION Mexicans into
'trusted traveller' (ie Green Card) status
---remember, as goes Britain ---so goes ----
GUESS WHO?

For even MORE fun punch up 'Fabian Socialists
Win' ---for a devastating leaked video of the
Australian PM kow-towing, in Chinese, to
Beijing.

--------------------------------GO! CHECK IT OUT!

WE DARE YOU

This IS treason_______________________

weddingdresses| 6.27.11 @ 5:00AM

Creative Recreation| 8.10.11 @ 9:37PM

is good