-In today's NY Times, Paul Krugman told a story about what happened in a U S House hearing on Wed., led by congressman Paul Ryan. (R) WI:
excerpt:
But Mr. Ryan is sure that the dollar is being debased and won’t take no for an answer. In an attempt to create a gotcha moment, he waved a copy of a newspaper bearing the headline “Inflation Worries Spread” at the Fed chairman. But the gotcha actually went the other way. As Mr. Bernanke immediately pointed out, the article was about inflation in China and other emerging markets, not in the United States. And the Fed chairman declared, correctly, that “inflation made here in the U.S. is very, very low.”
source:
Abraham Lincoln, Inflationist - NYTimes.com
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It reminded me of some Senate hearings years and years ago, led by a Senator from WI, Joe McCarthy. (Joe sponsored my room mate, so I watched him carefully).
My job as a Senate Page that day was to "man" the door, and keep out the riffraff. I created quite a stir at this first day of the hearings, by refusing to let in an olive-skinned, sleazeball-looking young guy, who turned out to be Roy Cohn. (He was finally let in by "higher authority", and identified as a McCarthy aide)
But I still remember old Joe waving "a list of 130 members of the Communist Party", which of course, turned out to be bogus.
And yes, I was right about Roy Cohn--not because of his olive skin, but because you can dress up a sleazeball, and he's still a sleazeball. Us North Dakota boys knew those things, even as a teenager in the 1950s.
(Jim, I do wonder on which planet Mr. Bernanke's United States with "very, very low" inflation is. It can't be the one where, if he takes himself to the movies, a medium diet drink now is $5! Still, I suppose if you have a big, fat salary, Abe Lincoln has replaced George Washington on the smallest significant bill. It must be the same one on which Congress Critters and Presidents do not eat the same food as everyone else in the country and thus scramble to allow GMO alfalfa and GMO sugar beets with their 400% increase in pesticides.)
But I digress. Leave it to the Repugs to scramble their sources and act like, um, sleazeballs.
Sigh.
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