We’re a nation of whiners and mental cases
July 10th, 2008 at 10:24am Pat Cunningham
It’s about time that somebody spoke the truth about all this crybaby stuff concerning the economy. And who better to do it than Phil Gramm (above, left), vice chairman of a giant Swiss bank and top economic adviser to John McCain?
You remember Phil Gramm, don’t you? He’s a former U.S. senator from Texas, in which capacity he sponsored a nifty little piece of legislation eight years ago to “protect financial institutions from overregulation.” Granted, some folks SAY the measure helped bring on the subprime mortgage crisis, but what do they know?
True to his Texas roots, Gramm is a straight-shooter who says what he means and means what he says. For example, just the other day he SAID that America has become a “nation of whiners” with all their complaints about the soft economy.
The economy’s just dandy, he said, and any notions to the contrary are purely “mental.”
Not surprisingly, there’s talk that Gramm would be appointed treasury secretary in a McCain administration.
Well, that settles it. I know who I’m voting for. Yes, sir, I know for sure.
UPDATE: The McCain camp initially STOOD BEHIND Gramm’s remarks this morning but then backed away.
Entry Filed under: Phil Gramm, John McCain
20 Comments Add your own
1. Leatherneck | July 10th, 2008 at 10:50 am
The evidence does not support your idea that we are in a recession. Recently I was out at Perryville on a weeknight: JMK Nippon’s was packed and so was Josef’s. JMK had a sign that said “Now Hiring”. So much for people tightening their belts by not eating out! Down the street, another upscale retail strip mall is being built. Who is going to shop there? Consumers with money that’s who. The developer wouldn’t be building it if the economy was bad and there was no market. I drove by Best Buy where I saw people are buying big plasma tv’s. Drive into Schaumburg sometime; you’ll think it was Christmas season. Somebody slap these consumers and tell them that the economy is bad, because Pat Cunningham says so. Where do they get off spending money?! Don’t they know we’re in a recession?!
2. Kent j | July 10th, 2008 at 11:10 am
And of course Obama will give us new hope for a good economy.
Give me a break. He is as far left as you can go.
He will tax all of us to death… and manipulate the economy even MORE.
Get the fed out of EVERYTHING.. and read the constitution for once… all of you.
GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK.
3. Kaus | July 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Are any politicians straight shooters? If anyone can tell me why Obama is a straight shooter, I would like to know.
4. Pat Cunningham | July 10th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Kent: Specifically which parts of the Constitution do you want us to read? And don’t cop out by saying all of it. Apparently, you’ve got certain parts in mind. And where did you get the notion that Obama “will tax all of us to death”? He’s proposed tax CUTS for the middle class. Tell us where you got this notion, Kent. Or are you just parroting the right-wing line with nothing to back it up? C’mon, Kent. Get specific.
5. LD | July 10th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Leatherneck - What happens when the credit cards are finally maxed?
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/08/afx5193660.html
6. Mike Carroll | July 10th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Phil Gramm is an excellent economist and a lousy politician. What he said is correct. We aren’t in a recession unless the liberals have succeeded in changing the definition and I’m not so sure he is wrong about a nation of whiners as even a cursory reading of this and other liberal blogs would confirm.
7. Pat Cunningham | July 10th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
OK, Mike, just for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that you’re right and that Gramm is right. So, why has McCain thrown him under the bus? If McCain disowns such a bright economist, what does that tell you about McCain’s leadership abilities? Is he inclined to say and do anything in his effort to get elected? No matter how you slice it, this episode is a big loser for McCain. His Larry Kudlow base is pissed. Joe Sixpack is pissed. The story sucks the oxygen out of the political climate for at least a couple of news cycles. McCain’s camp is in disarray. All of this against a backdrop in which Obama benefits from a Sister Souljah moment with the Jesse Jackson affair. Also, McCain’s thing about Social Security the other day is going to come back to haunt him big time. This has not been a good week for Mr. Straight Talk.
8. Henry | July 10th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
We aren’t in a recession? Tell that to the Janesville GM workers, or any of the suppliers to the auto industry. Toyota announced today it may close a truck plant due to withering sales. Look at the employment ads in Sunday’s paper and compare them to a year ago. Alan Greenspan said recently that it’s 50/50 that we are in a recession. Look at housing starts, lowest in 17 years. C’mon, get real.
9. Craig Knauss | July 10th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
If we aren’t in a recession, we will be soon enough. It’s not just the auto industry that’s laying off. Every day we read about another airline cutting back service and laying off its employees. Northwest just announced something like 2500 more layoffs. And the other types of transportation companies are feeling the pinch, as well. Prices are increasing, but the paychecks aren’t. The slide is getting steeper all the time.
10. Leatherneck | July 10th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
On the plane which I flew last week, and every seat was booked. People still need to travel. Round trip was $250 on Expedia. So deals are still there and air travel is affordable. But hey, if you say the economy is bad…
I was at a Major League baseball game. Every seat was sold. People didn’t have to be there and they didn’t have to buy high-priced concessions. But you know what? They were. I guess somebody should tell’em about the GM plants and the employment ads. What are they thinking?!
Speaking of auto industry, today my spouse pointed out a Volvo dealership being built here in Rockford. Now tell me, Mr. economic genius, if the economy is so bad, how are they building this place and who will buy Volvos?!
And don’t tell me that it’s all because of credit cards. Nobody buys a Volvo with a credit card. Also, a lot of times when people use plastic, it’s because it is a “check card” like I use. The money comes out of my checking account, not out of thin air.
Things slow down in an election year because big business waits to see what will happen. This is a normal cycle. But to say we are in a recession is BS. It is a figment of your imagination. The evidence doesn’t support it.
11. Pat Cunningham | July 10th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Leatherneck is right. The economy’s doing just fine. The Cubs are filling the seats at Wrigley. JMK Nippon is hiring waitstaffers and dishwashers. The airplane he rode was full. It’s boom time in America. Pay no attention to these items: mortgage foreclosures at record highs; 6,500 retail closings expected by the end of the year, the most in at least eight years; record high gas prices; food prices rising; six straight months of contraction in the jobs market; Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae teetering on the brink of bankruptcy; consumer confidence plummeting to a 16-year low; auto manufacturers suffering, with at least one of America’s big three facing possible bankruptcy; wages stagnant; credit-card debt at astronomical levels; more jobholders losing health insurance and retirement security; and on and on. But, hey, the situation is rosy. Just look at Leatherneck’s anecdotal evidence. Don’t get in a funk just because the government felt a need this past spring to send everyone economic stimulus checks. Consider those checks dividend payments on a booming economy.
12. LD | July 11th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Leatherneck is also right that people don’t buy Volvos with a credit card. They’ve been buying them with home equity loans. And people are paying all these loans back and banking stocks have been going gangbusters, right? What are your mortgage numbers again Pat? Ohh….
13. Mike Carroll | July 11th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Pat-I wouldn’t argue that this has been a bad week for McCain with Gramm’s stupid but accurate comment added to the Jackson affair for Obama.McCain has thrown Gramm under the Straight Talk Express because that is what he had to do to lessen the damage as politicians will do (…”I could no more disown Reverend Wright than my grandmother”…). Wright is still under the bus but I think Grandma has been hauled from under.BTW, it might have gone a long way if Obama had responded to Jackson rather than through a spokeman. Might have shown that he had a pair if you get my drift.
That said, bad week for McCain but my point remains-we are not (at least yet) in a recession and we have become a nation of whiners.
14. Pat Cunningham | July 11th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Mike: You might want to check my latest post this morning about Phil Gramm’s Swiss bank, UBS.
15. Pat Cunningham | July 11th, 2008 at 8:54 am
One other thing, Mike: You couldn’t be more wrong about the way Obama handled the Jackson business. From a political standpoint, he handled it perfectly. This stuff about how he should have “shown that he had a pair” strikes me as weird. This was not the occasion for a display of what you seem to regard as manliness. He played it low-key and got his Sister Souljah Moment. Smart politics.
16. Mike Carroll | July 11th, 2008 at 10:16 am
It was a politically smart move for the base that he has. To win the big prize he needs more of the muddled middle and that is where a sharp rebuke to Jackson would have helped him. Not a show of manliness, more a demonstration of having the capability of taking off the gloves if need be. A little less Harvard elite and a bit more dirth in the teeth.
17. Pat Cunningham | July 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Ah, yes, the gratuitous “Harvard elite” slam. Black guy gets a Harvard education, he’s an elitist. What a crock! What an anti-intellectual crock! I would expect that kind of nonsense from some slack-jawed moron who flunked out of Pat Robertson’s Clown College, but not from you. There was a time in this country when an Ivy League education was admired, when the editorship of the Harvard Law Review spoke well of someone. But alas, no more — at least not among the booboisie. (Oops! I used a word that sounds French. We’re all supposed to be Francophobes, you know. It’s the patriotic thing to do. Pass me the freedom fries, please.)
18. Mike Carroll | July 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
A bit touchy today, aren\’t we. Must have hit a nerve.
19. Pat Cunningham | July 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Hey, I gave you a left-handed compliment when I said I expected better of you. Most commenters here don’t get such respect. (Now it’s your turn to key on the “left-handed” reference. Y’know, me being a political lefty and all). Besides, if I was grumpy today, I couldn’t have come up with those clever remarks about Pat Robertson’s Clown College and the freedom fries. No, I’m doing just fine. I just hate to see personal achievement like Obama’s academic career disrespected. If nothing else, his education is a shining example to young African-Americans.
20. Mike Carroll | July 11th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I’m actually not dissing his education. I respect a Harvard, or any top flight University, degree although I tend to think the Ivies are over rated.
My only point was that if most people were insulted by a blowhard (and that’s a kind description) like Jackson the human reaction is to take a swing back at him. I still think Obama missed an even better opportunity.
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