Comments on: Current Events http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/ The Big Questions | Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:50:12 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: robert franklin mehl - StartTags.com http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3345 robert franklin mehl - StartTags.com Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:46:59 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3345 [...] franklin mehl Current Events at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions ...The Big Questions | Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and [...] [...] franklin mehl Current Events at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions …The Big Questions | Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and [...]

]]> By: Philip http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3100 Philip Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:10:20 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3100 "Nobody in his or her right mind would argue." I agree entirely with the "Nobody in his or her right mind..." but there are plenty of laissez-faire apologists who do just that. They tend to blame it all on government intervention in the economy, just as they do the Great Depression. "But that was not the point of Landsburg’s blog post." True, but I'm using Steve's blogpost as a point of departure to ask the somewhat irreverent question: Why do Larry Summers' "offenses" rank so high as to deserve a call-out when there are so many others who are responsible for bringing on the disaster the administration is dealing with? I suppose I'm implying there's an ideological agenda here, but I'm prepared to be proven wrong with citations of how many of my listed culprits have been called out on this site. “Nobody in his or her right mind would argue.”

I agree entirely with the “Nobody in his or her right mind…” but there are plenty of laissez-faire apologists who do just that. They tend to blame it all on government intervention in the economy, just as they do the Great Depression.

“But that was not the point of Landsburg’s blog post.”

True, but I’m using Steve’s blogpost as a point of departure to ask the somewhat irreverent question: Why do Larry Summers’ “offenses” rank so high as to deserve a call-out when there are so many others who are responsible for bringing on the disaster the administration is dealing with? I suppose I’m implying there’s an ideological agenda here, but I’m prepared to be proven wrong with citations of how many of my listed culprits have been called out on this site.

]]> By: Jonathan Kariv http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3094 Jonathan Kariv Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:51:53 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3094 Something of a tangential point but... "Champion athletes are made, not born, and they’re made when little Johnny sixth-grader realizes that the high school varsity quarterback gets to date the head cheerleader" A quick wiki search reveals Tiger Woods broke 80 when he was 8. Does anyone seriously believe he was interested enough in girls at age 8 to spend the amount of time training it would take to do that? (if we believe wiki). Not that this means anything much but if the argument is "Athletes are motivated to train because high performance gets them laid" then it's kind of amusing to be using a prodigy as your prime example. Something of a tangential point but…

“Champion athletes are made, not born, and they’re made when little Johnny sixth-grader realizes that the high school varsity quarterback gets to date the head cheerleader”

A quick wiki search reveals Tiger Woods broke 80 when he was 8. Does anyone seriously believe he was interested enough in girls at age 8 to spend the amount of time training it would take to do that? (if we believe wiki).

Not that this means anything much but if the argument is “Athletes are motivated to train because high performance gets them laid” then it’s kind of amusing to be using a prodigy as your prime example.

]]> By: Philip http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3093 Philip Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:31:31 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3093 Indeed, Nathan. And the costs of the malfeasance, fraud, greed, corruption and ideological blindness that led to the meltdown was a multiple of the cost of health care reform. In contrast to the costs of health care reform, I don't hear a lot of screaming from these quarters about the costs and abuses that led to the meltdown (in fact what I usually here is a denial that they were abuses at all). Indeed, Nathan. And the costs of the malfeasance, fraud, greed, corruption and ideological blindness that led to the meltdown was a multiple of the cost of health care reform.

In contrast to the costs of health care reform, I don’t hear a lot of screaming from these quarters about the costs and abuses that led to the meltdown (in fact what I usually here is a denial that they were abuses at all).

]]> By: Manfred http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3086 Manfred Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:10:55 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3086 Philip: yes, the list of arrogant and abrasive people in policy-making and CEO cirlces is very, very long. Of course. Nobody in his or her right mind would argue. But that was not the point of Landsburg's blog post. The way I understand his (Steve's) post, is summarized very nicely by RL, the very first comment on the blog post. Philip: yes, the list of arrogant and abrasive people in policy-making and CEO cirlces is very, very long. Of course. Nobody in his or her right mind would argue.
But that was not the point of Landsburg’s blog post. The way I understand his (Steve’s) post, is summarized very nicely by RL, the very first comment on the blog post.

]]> By: Doctor Memory (aka Nathan Mehl) http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3075 Doctor Memory (aka Nathan Mehl) Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:23:57 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3075 Jon Shea@2:23 -- heh, that would be a different post. While Henry Kissinger may have been at least partially correct when he said that power was the ultimate aphrodisiac, so far as we know not even Jack Kennedy racked up anything close to the average NBA or MLB player's lifetime, uh, score. And contrariwise, even if we take Wilt Chamberlain's staggering self-assessment of over 20,000 partners at face value, I can't think of any particular way in which the country as a whole was hurt by his horndogging, while the damage wrought by (for example, but hardly exhaustively) the list Philip provided above will still be felt by our great grand-children at a minimum. Jon Shea@2:23 — heh, that would be a different post. While Henry Kissinger may have been at least partially correct when he said that power was the ultimate aphrodisiac, so far as we know not even Jack Kennedy racked up anything close to the average NBA or MLB player’s lifetime, uh, score. And contrariwise, even if we take Wilt Chamberlain’s staggering self-assessment of over 20,000 partners at face value, I can’t think of any particular way in which the country as a whole was hurt by his horndogging, while the damage wrought by (for example, but hardly exhaustively) the list Philip provided above will still be felt by our great grand-children at a minimum.

]]> By: Philip http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3073 Philip Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:28:01 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3073 Which picture atop is Summers? Acutally, I worked with Summers for 7 years at Treasury under Clinton. He is indeed incredibly arrogant. But he falls way down the list of culprits who forged the policies that brought us to this sorry place. How many of the following have you called out? Chris Cox Angelo Mazilo Joe Cassano Phil Gramm Kathleen Corbet Greenspan Jim Cayne Dick Fund Stan O'Neal Sandy Weill Greenspan GW Bush Marty Sullivan David Lereah Greenspan Hank Paulson Lew Raneiri Franklin Raines Chuck Prince Clinton Robert Rubin B Madoff Which picture atop is Summers?

Acutally, I worked with Summers for 7 years at Treasury under Clinton. He is indeed incredibly arrogant.

But he falls way down the list of culprits who forged the policies that brought us to this sorry place. How many of the following have you called out?

Chris Cox
Angelo Mazilo
Joe Cassano
Phil Gramm
Kathleen Corbet
Greenspan
Jim Cayne
Dick Fund
Stan O’Neal
Sandy Weill
Greenspan
GW Bush
Marty Sullivan
David Lereah
Greenspan
Hank Paulson
Lew Raneiri
Franklin Raines
Chuck Prince
Clinton
Robert Rubin
B Madoff

]]> By: Philip http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3071 Philip Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:51:21 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3071 This one by Bill Simon's as good: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100219 This one by Bill Simon’s as good:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100219

]]> By: Jon Shea http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3069 Jon Shea Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:32:18 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3069 Nathan’s post is great. I just wish he had included politicians in his set of unfaithful “hyper-competitive obsessives”. Nathan’s post is great. I just wish he had included politicians in his set of unfaithful “hyper-competitive obsessives”.

]]> By: DividedLine http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/02/22/current-events/comment-page-1/#comment-3068 DividedLine Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:13:16 +0000 http://www.thebigquestions.com/?p=2390#comment-3068 Pretty funny article about Tiger Woods. Of course the same thing could be said about Wall Street execs too: “we all spend 14 hours out of every day hanging around a very small group of people” More like 16 on Wall Street… “So why do we? Why do I do it? First, because we are hyper-competitive obsessives. The idea of not being the best, of not enduring any amount of agony if it even slightly increased the chances of winning is almost physically unbearable.” Bring me my bonus! “First you get the money. Then you get the power. Then you get the women.” Oh man, you don’t look so good without your wallet – said the woman to the Wall Street exec whose bonus got cut… Pretty funny article about Tiger Woods. Of course the same thing could be said about Wall Street execs too:

“we all spend 14 hours out of every day hanging around a very small group of people” More like 16 on Wall Street…

“So why do we? Why do I do it? First, because we are hyper-competitive obsessives. The idea of not being the best, of not enduring any amount of agony if it even slightly increased the chances of winning is almost physically unbearable.” Bring me my bonus!

“First you get the money. Then you get the power. Then you get the women.” Oh man, you don’t look so good without your wallet – said the woman to the Wall Street exec whose bonus got cut…

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