Commentary Forum

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by John Antonelli on October 1, 2008 at 12:19pm

Very cool idea Jim!

Permalink Reply by David Wallin on October 18, 2008 at 1:49pm

IN MY OPINION
The 1929 Depression was created precisely because Hoover followed the path that our government is now taking

The current stock market crash has spurred a vital national debate about the causes and catalysts of the Great Depression. The dominant school of thought believes that the stubborn refusal of then president Herbert Hoover to intervene after the stock market crash of 1929, and his preference for free market solutions, led directly to the ensuing decade-long catastrophe. Through this lens, our leaders assure us that the most recent raft of government measures will prevent another episode of bread lines, Hoovervilles and pencil salesmen. As usual they have it completely wrong. In my view, the Depression was created precisely because Hoover followed the path that our government is now taking.

When the stock market bubble of the Roaring Twenties (which was created as a result of the loose monetary policy of the newly created Federal Reserve) finally popped, Hoover would not allow market forces to correct the imbalances. His policies were aimed at propping up unsound businesses, artificially supporting prices, particularly wages, and providing Federal funds for public works projects. These moves went well beyond the progressive reforms of Teddy Roosevelt, and established Hoover as the most interventionist president ever up to that point. In fact, much of what eventually became the New Deal had its roots in Hoover’s policies.

However, at the time, there were those who recommended a different course. Andrew Mellon, the long-serving Secretary of the Treasury whom Hoover had inherited from the prior two Republican Administrations, was labeled by Hoover as a “leave it alone isolationist” who wanted to “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, and liquidate real estate.” Hoover would have none of it. In fact, during his nomination speech for a potential second term, Hoover bragged “We determined that we would not follow the advice of the bitter liquidationists and see the whole body of debtors of the United States brought to bankruptcy and the savings of our people brought to destruction.”

Hoover chose to ignore the sound advice of his Treasury Secretary (identical to today where the current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is actually leading the charge over the cliff) while he instead used every tool at his disposal to “fix” the problem. As a result, rather than allowing a recession to run its course, with healthy and rapid liquidations of the mal-investments built up during the boom, Hoover inadvertently created what became the Great Depression.

When Roosevelt took office he continued the same failed policies only on a grander scale. The magnitude and the idiocy of many New Deal programs, such as the wage and price setting of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), compounded the problems. So while Mellon’s advice would have caused a sharp but relatively brief economic downturn (which occurred after the Panic of 1907, for example), the Depression plodded on for nearly a decade until the country began gearing up for the Second World War.

In an amazing feat of revisionist history, somehow Hoover’s interventionist policies have been completely forgotten. It is taken as fundamental that his inaction led to the Depression and Roosevelt’s “heroics” got us out. Unfortunately, since we have learned nothing from history, we are about to repeat the very mistakes that lead to the most dire economic circumstance of the last century.

A major difference however, is that the structure of the U.S economy today is far weaker than it was in the fall of 1929 since it has no commodity backing. Years of reckless consumer borrowing and spending, and enormous trade and budget deficits have resulted in a hollowed out industrial base and an unmanageable mountain of debt owed to foreign creditors. The public now must deal with a modern FED that allows politicians to print as much money as they want. So rather than getting the benefits of falling consumer prices (as happened during the Depression), consumers today will contend with much higher consumer prices, even as the economy contracts. Today our economic future as a result will be much worse.

Permalink Reply by Marcus on October 27, 2008 at 7:10pm

"Some say the answer to youth crime is to "lock em up" and throw away the key but commentator Vincent Schiraldi says a very different approach is already proving a success. Schiraldi directs DC`s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services..."

Vincent Schiraldi's solution to violent teenage predators who murder, rape, rob, assault and poison fellow District residents? Just give them the chance to become junior bankers and donate their cash to Third World micro-credit lenders. Or fly them to New Orleans to help re-build playgrounds. Or teach them Shakespeare.

How could we all have failed to realize sooner that these under-appreciated youngsters just need to be put in touch with their innate philanthropic tendencies and allowed to flourish like the under-resourced humanists and aspiring public servants they are? We don't need those pesky old school ideas like incarceration that keep the rest of the public safe; we need only to hitch our cart to the abundant good will that is at the heart of every...wolf pack?

The quaint anecdotes Schiraldi shares in his absurd Utopian commentary make one wonder: where are the stats? Recidivism? Rates of violent attacks on staff? Staff turnover rates? Injuries and assaults on other youths at Oak Hill? Rapes? The good old-fashioned metrics of success and failure? Not the feel-good bromides of flying teen work squads to other parts of the country, or cultivating charity and activism among those whose only recreation is hatred and violence.

When Harvard-backed Messiahs claim to have figured out a "simple" cure for violent teenage sociopaths---when idiocy masquerades as avant garde idealism AND pragmatic social science---taxpayers need to lock their doors, zipper shut their wallets, and elect a new regime. A pistol in the home may not make one much safer in reality, but the Shiraldi charade at DYRS is likely to be a whole lot *less* effective than that.

---Marcus Johnson
Washington, DC

Permalink Reply by Eric E. Sterling on November 3, 2008 at 1:55pm

Kudos to WAMU 88.5 for broadcasting Vincent Schiraldi's description of innovative programs to reduce recidivism among youthful offenders in D.C. http://wamu.org/news/08/10/27.php
http://wamu.org/audio/nw/08/11/n11081103-23606.asx (Windows Media)
http://wamu.org/audio/nw/08/11/n11081103-23606.ram (Real Audio)

The literature of criminology is full of programs that are failures because they are grounded on a crack down rhetoric. D.C. is lucky to have a visionary leader like Schiraldi to push programs that are going to effectively restore youthful offenders to the community. Our legitimate fears of violent crime too often are exploited to support "mandatory" sentences that fail to "correct" young people.

Permalink Reply by Vincent on November 20, 2008 at 7:11am

I just heard another nonsensical rant by Fred Fiske, this time on bailing out the auto companies. I could type for hours on all of the things he said that were wrong, but among the most central is the idea that under chapter 11, the companies wouldn't sell cars, wouldn't honor warranties, or would even go out of business, This is nonsense. There are any number of commitments that a car maker would have to maintain in order to balance the interests of all parties involved, as would be determined under the bankruptcy court. Bankruptcy judges are not interested in wiping out the companies that come to their courts. Quite the opposite. Chapter 11 companies still make their products, still deliver the same services, still make money, etc. hundreds of thousands of people have flown on bankrupt airlines without having to worry about commitments to safety. The idea that a bail-out would be better for workers is further nonsense. When the government bailed out Chrysler, a third of the work force ended up laid off. WAMU doesn't contribute constructively to the debate when it contributes to already rampant misconceptions about what Chapter 11 means. Educate, don't mislead.
-Vincent

Permalink Reply by Mary B. in DC on November 20, 2008 at 4:29pm

There may be intelligent reasons why the air line bankrupcy and the Fiske-feared auto industry bankruptcies would work out differently but Fiske didn't offer credible ones. Bankruptcy doesn't allow the company to ignore contracts made after the bankruptcy--and warranties are essentially contracts. Airlines that went into bankruptcy even continued, for the most part, to honor accrued frequent flyer promises out of a need to keep ongoing customers. Car makers would be wise to do the same. Fiske is right that auto manufacturers in the US face competitive pressures since the United States is the only industrialized country that has an employer-based health care system. Righting that would help not just one industry, but all of them.

Permalink Reply by Jeanne on December 5, 2008 at 8:24pm

I heard the Fred Fiske commentary on the Walmart Stampede death. It reminded me that I had had a conversation with someone last weekend who was much more upset by that than by the events in India. I subsequently talked to at least 2 other people who seemed to feel the same way. I wonder if the 'death-by-greed' event is more horrifying because it is more threatening to our own identities? As if we can distance the thoughts of the terrorists, "I could never do that" vs the greedy shoppers - "Could I ever do that?"

Permalink Reply by Anna Gardiner on December 19, 2008 at 7:54pm

Fred Fiske's commentary on the depletion of fish from our oceans and the necessity for clean water is well warranted. I often agree with Fred's commentaries and look forward to them. To me, however, this last commentary had one glaring omission upon which I am compelled to remark. It touches a hot button with me because it deals with a subject matter our politically correct society still isn't able to address due to what I call Seinfeld Syndrome, the inability to address the gross and disgusting like poop and fungus. Fred's list of pollutants contaminating our waterways did not include raw human sewage. He mentions animal waste but stops short of acknowledging that many older communities like portions of the District of Columbia have combined storm water and sanitary sewer systems which dumps bacterial and viral laden raw sewage directly into surrounding rivers, a source of the communities' drinking water. During heavy rains, the volume from the storm sewers overloads treatment plants and more untreated sewage is discharged into our local waterways. It's estimated that each year, some 3 billion gallons of raw sewage flows directly into the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. Bacteria levels in these discharges are thousands of times over safe limits, making it unhealthy to swim, fish or even boat in area waterways. Yet there are no warning signs prohibiting such activities. And chlorine doesn't kill all microbes in our water. Tests aren't even performed to detect much of the bacteria in our water.

Let me tell you, what you don't know and what you fail to address can kill you -- most likely after a prolonged illness. Our penchant for burying our heads in the sand when it comes to unpleasantries and only addressing things once they've gone beyond repairability is humankind's downfall. The end of 2004 a federal court settlement required the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) to curtail the discharge of these billions of gallons of overflow by building large underground tunnels to store the sewage and rainwater until storms subside and it can be pumped to Blue Plains for treatment. Completion of the first tunnel won't occur until 2018, and other tunnels aren't scheduled for completion until 2025. Want to bet whether WASA files suit in 10 years to delay such construction just as it did this past August to keep from having to meet pollution limits imposed on it by EPA?

News items about accidental dumping of 15 million gallons of untreated sewage now and again into the Potomac from the Blue Plains' backup plant north of Georgetown are listed with other news items as a matter of course. I suppose it's like hearing the DOW dropped another couple hundred points today. There's nothing you can do about it, so why be outraged? But we do get outraged or at least depressed when we see our 401K savings erode. Why not the same outrage about the dumping of raw sewage into our drinking water? Because it's not getting the same amount of attention and air play. People don't want to hear about it. Well people, what you permit, you encourage.

Take a boat ride on the Potomac and tell me how much marine life you see? Zippo. Nadda. It's eerie. It took marine scientists from 1977 until today to figure out bacteria was slowly killing off marine life in the Chesapeake Bay. How long do you think it will it take bioscientists to realize how many people are being killed off by the bacteria in our rivers?

Permalink Reply by Patrick on January 23, 2009 at 9:14am

In response to Court's commentary on the efficiency of Metro rail and buses on inaugural Tuesday I feel it is important for somebody to play the devils advocate:

Yes, more people than ever before used Metro rail without increasing the number of rail cars, but let us not forget about the passenger who was struck by a train in Gallery pl./China town Red line station.

Indeed the major automobile arteries were virtually devoid of single passenger vehicles, but this is only because they were legally prohibited.

While twice as many people reached the Capitol than on a usual commuter day, a significant number of those persons began their commute near 4:00 am. Who is up for starting their daily routine at 4 am?

One final note. I live in Alexandria VA, but work in Suitland MD. My company was forced to cancel work on Tuesday because the commute would have been virtually impossible for many of us. Many extra people found a way to make it to the National Mall on Tuesday via touristic means of transit (tour buses) at the expense of the mobility of the rest of us.

These are the sum of my criticism. You may find it hard to believe that I am an optimist. I hope that some day public transit will be more convenient and efficient than carpooling, but for now that is not the reality. An area where Court's commentary does ring true is in her criticism of current budgeting and planning that focus on expanding our dependency on individual automotive transit. Certainly it is time for us to ditch the "1950's mentality."

Permalink Reply by Ess Dee on January 29, 2009 at 9:14am

Fred Fiske, at about 9:00 am, indicated that America needs to train more people in the maths and sciences. I noted a similar comment on p. 39 of the February, 2009 Harvard Business Review that indicated "a shortage of analytic skills in the United States and Western Europe." These comments run counter to my experience. I have an Engineering Degree and an MBA. I excel in analytic thinking and problem solving. I have been unemployed for about a year now. As far as I can tell, there is almost no demand for people with exceptional analytic skills.

I would very much like to see an article that substantiates these statements which seem so obviously false to me.

Permalink Reply by Madelyn on February 5, 2009 at 9:51am

Fred Fiske's commentary today articulates exactly what the sane majority of the public thinks regarding hate radio and it's most celebrated, and clearly dangerous, buffoon. Limbaugh, steadfastly uninformed, leads GOP lawmakers around by the ear, manipulating seemingly reasonable men and women as he would simple puppets. This is a radio entertainer, hardly a great mind, hardly a mind at all in the wake of his continuing struggle with narcotics. Surely the addiction has contributed to the diminished state of his character, amoral and hate-mongering. Lucky for Limbaugh, he lives in a country of progressive laws, born of progressive minds at it's founding, that would unlike most nations of its time, provide for the free expression of ideas. And, indeed he takes full advantage of these and other freedoms--even as he spews day after day his rants hoping for the failure of our country, through the failure of our leader. In some parts of the world, this would be seen as treason, and the least of his punishment would be imprisonment. This is a very fortunate man, to have been born in a free country and to be allowed to freely damn to failure his president, our country, and the hopes of a new generation seeking to restore the nation's promise. I must say I'm thankful for the sane majority, for whom Fred Fiske spoke today. This majority surely will return to the polls in the near future and will remember those seemingly reasonable lawmakers who cowered before Limbaugh and did his bidding.

Permalink Reply by John Antonelli on February 5, 2009 at 10:41am

Madelyn, you give Rush waaay too much power! Why is this Fiske character never on when I listen to WAMU from say 5 - 7?

Madelyn Callahan said:

Fred Fiske's commentary today articulates exactly what the sane majority of the public thinks regarding hate radio and it's most celebrated, and clearly dangerous, buffoon. Limbaugh, steadfastly uninformed, leads GOP lawmakers around by the ear, manipulating seemingly reasonable men and women as he would simple puppets. This is a radio entertainer, hardly a great mind, hardly a mind at all in the wake of his continuing struggle with narcotics. Surely the addiction has contributed to the diminished state of his character, amoral and hate-mongering. Lucky for Limbaugh, he lives in a country of progressive laws, born of progressive minds at it's founding, that would unlike most nations of its time, provide for the free expression of ideas. And, indeed he takes full advantage of these and other freedoms--even as he spews day after day his rants hoping for the failure of our country, through the failure of our leader. In some parts of the world, this would be seen as treason, and the least of his punishment would be imprisonment. This is a very fortunate man, to have been born in a free country and to be allowed to freely damn to failure his president, our country, and the hopes of a new generation seeking to restore the nation's promise. I must say I'm thankful for the sane majority, for whom Fred Fiske spoke today. This majority surely will return to the polls in the near future and will remember those seemingly reasonable lawmakers who cowered before Limbaugh and did his bidding.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• …
• 5
• Next ›
• Page