Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ok, I lied

I can't ignore this. I know I saw that recession around here somewhere...:

The economy grew at 1.9% last quarter. Two thoughts. First, the American economy is simply amazingly resilient--1.9% is cause for exultant celebration in a lot of European finance ministries. And second, Barack Obama's campaign team is probably doing some serious rethinking this morning.
Here's the NYTimes headline on the same topic; G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite Stimulus.
The economy grew less than expected from April to June despite a huge booster shot of tax rebates, the government reported on Thursday, dimming the outlook for a quick recovery.

And more bad news may lie ahead: new claims for unemployment benefits jumped to a five-year high last week, an ominous sign for the ailing labor market that could signal a further decrease in spending in the months ahead.
Megan McArdle is quite literally incompetent at her job.

5 comments:

Susan of Texas said...

So very, very wrong. So very, very stupid. Good god, she's pathetic today. It's utterly unbelievable. I am in awe. Does nobody read what she writes at the Atlantic? Are they utterly incapable of shame?

spencer said...

Megan McArdle is quite literally incompetent at her job.

No she isn't. But that's only because her real job is not "econoblogger," whatever the hell that is.

Her real job is "propagandist." And while she's not brilliant at it, she does get the job done from time to time.

NutellaonToast said...

I thought her real job was token "quirky female pseudo-libertarian" so that they can have pretensions of "balance?"

Whatever her job is, she sucks at it thoroughly. To be expected, really, as she clearly sucks at everything.

brad said...

She's a failure as a propagandist, too, tho. Lies have to have the capacity to fool others to qualify, and hers don't.
The only thing she did 'right' in the post was not link to any news story anywhere else on the internet whose story would show how fundamentally wrong she is, and that's going to fool all of maybe... two people.

spencer said...

Lies have to have the capacity to fool others to qualify, and hers don't

Ah, but when you're writing about a subject like economics - which many people realize is probably kind of important but nonetheless find boring and impenetrable - the bar is actually set lower. All she has to do is sow confusion and doubt or to supply her drones with new talking points (they don't actually have to understand these points, of course), and her job is done.

Besides, she's one of those Chicago School people, and the lies perpetrated by that group are actually believable for people who don't know anything about how economics actually works in the real world. Their bullshit is very simplistic, and it blames poor people for their own misery, so selfish and lazy idiots find it to be a comforting ideology.