The New York Times has an illustrious history of employing some of the worst columnists ever to put fingers to keyboard. Frank Rich, Tom Friedman, ad nauseum. With every new column they reach new heights of cluelessness. These columnists serve to protect the readership of the New York Times from the real world, and provide talking points for people with little intelligence and less imagination.
Bob Herbert is only remarkable because he’s so forgettable. Everything he writes is mundane, shallow, paint-by-numbers liberalism. He’s the left wing, print version of the Fox & Friends morning hosts.
But today, with a straight face, Herbert serves up a most classic example of how the left is wholly ignorant of economics.
The collapse of the economy in the Great Recession gave us the starkest, most painful evidence imaginable of the failure of laissez-faire economics and the destructive force of the alliance of big business and government against the interests of ordinary Americans.
Bob, it’s not laissez-faire economics if government works in alliance with business. The two things are mutually exclusive.
To be fair, this sort of thing is rarely covered in Econ 101. Give the guy some credit here; it’s probably Econ 102 he failed.
I’ve read Herbert on the rare occasions that he is published locally. I find Trey’s assessment of him accurate. The guy rarely rises above progressive parrot comments. His thinking is thimble deep, and that is probably generous. A recent study, reported in the WSJ, revealed that Liberals have a much weaker grasp of basic economics than do Conservatives. I guess they all either flunked Economics or were busy reading up on their political science. I would love to see a similar survey taken of journalists. Better yet, I would love to see journalists tested on statistics and basic science.
With every cut and paste ejaculation, Trey Garrison proves that libertarians are wholly devoid of ethics and self-restraint.
Anonymous, did Trey take your lunch money in high school?
No matter how many times the “progressives” make these claims, it won’t make them valid. Such is the magic of the Wizard of Oz.
It’s the Big Lie strategy, Amanda . . . . . although in this case I think it’s simple ignorance, willful, perhaps, but ignorance nonetheless.
Somebody over at the DMN must be drinking Herbert’s Kool-Aid – because this column appeared in Sunday’s Points section of the paper. I’m still cleaning the vomit out of my living room chair.
Exactly, Amanda. The “progressives” are always claiming that Trey Garrison is ejaculating. I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day, but still, it gets old.