One of the characters in the classic 1939 film “Stagecoach” is a banker named Gatewood who lectures his captive audience on the evils of big government, especially bank regulation — “As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks!” he exclaims. As the film progresses, we learn that Gatewood is in fact skipping town with a satchel full of embezzled cash.
And from there, it's all downhill. Republicans and conservatives are cast as the anarchy-loving fools that they are, not caring if there are rusty nails in our children's food. For Krugman, those skeptical of any limits on government power are completely anti-regulation and overall, are anti-government.
KC Mulville at Ricochet breaks down Krugman's cliched rhetoric:
Consider Paul Krugman’s piece today, in which he defends regulation. Krugman thinks he’s patiently explaining to us (rubes) why we need regulation, and what would happen if we got rid of it. Of course, this is a straw-man, since hardly anyone wants to remove regulation entirely. But Krugman takes it one step further. Krugman implies that unless we embrace the full set of regulations, and embrace the idea that regulators have unlimited authority, then we must be in favor of Big Bank or Big Finance excesses … and only the ignorant henchmen of Big Money, or their unwitting slaves, would accept that.
No comments:
Post a Comment