Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Red In The Face. Literally.

I think one of our many fine commenters may have referenced this in a comment earlier, but you must waste 4 mins. 20 secs. of your life to see Ms. McArdle "pwned," as you goofy-ass kids say.

Wouldn't unemployment stats be to count the number of people unemployed, not some imaginary "misery index?"

7 comments:

Susan of Texas said...

Holy cow. "Then why don't we still have [the WPA]?" Wow.

She tries to pretend definitions don't matter so she can brand the facts liberal (fantasy) or conservative (reality). She tries to make it into he-said, she said, with the liberal side wrong because they are ideological.

Wow. She did not come across well at all.

Parmenides said...

Wow, just Wow. I loved the look on Baker's face as she rambled on. He seemed to be think "what in god's name is this woman talking about".

Anonymous said...

For all her pretenses about her elitism and lofty breeding, she sure is one rude woman, constantly interrupting him like that. I don't know how Baker made it through without ripping off his headset and saying "Come to me when you want to have an adult conversation."

Anonymous said...

I feel bad for Baker, but why would he give her credibility by even talking to her?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Malaclypse. Here we have a real economist (Baker) talking to a fake economist (McArdle) who can't even bluff believably. She is so clearly full of shit, and she knows it.

Dhalgren said...

I must admit, that is the first time I've heard her speak. She makes Erin Burnett seem soft and cuddly.

There is a great feature article in the May 2008 issue of Harpers by Kevin P. Phillips titled 'Numbers Racket: Why the Economy is Worse Than We Know,' and it includes a summary of changes made to the governments measure of both unemployment and inflation since WWII. Email me for a PDF copy.

007@pobox.com

Anonymous said...

Erin Burnett IS soft and cuddly, and I'll fight any man who says otherwise!

But yeah, Bloggingheads might not want to pair experts with morons in the future.