Whiplash

I should probably never read Molly Ivins and Paul Krugman back to back. Think about that clash of cultures. A down-home Texas funny-woman straight to a East coast, Ivy League economist.

A reader sent me a site full of Molly Ivins quotes (I’m still looking) to read and then I remembered it was Monday so Krugman had a new column out.

On second thought....

Instead of me waxing philosophical, suppose you give it a try. Here are four quotes to get you started.

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”In the real world, there are only two ways to deal with corporate misbehavior: One is through government regulation and the other is by taking them to court. What has happened over 20 years of free-market proselytizing is that we have dangerously weakened both forms of restraint, first through the craze for "deregulation" and second through endless rounds of "tort reform," all of which have the effect of cutting off citizens' access to the courts. By legally bribing politicians with campaign contributions, the corporations have bought themselves immunity from lawsuits on many levels.”

Molly Ivins, Austin, Texas, July 25, 2002

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”No, this has nothing to do with sound economic policy. Instead, as I said, it’s about a dysfunctional and corrupt political culture, in which Congress won’t take action to revive the economy, pleads poverty when it comes to protecting the jobs of schoolteachers and firefighters, but declares cost no object when it comes to sparing the already wealthy even the slightest financial inconvenience.”

Paul Krugman, The New York Times, August 23, 2010

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"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem."

Ronald Reagan, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 1981”

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”"I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system."

George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2008

Don Brown
August 23, 2010

Comments

Doug Zabel said…
Molly in fact grew up in Houston's most exclusive neighborhood, River Oaks, and attended Smith College, a very Ivy place. Yet she maintained a gloriously working-class outlook and common touch -- not because she didn't understand the viewpoint of the wealthy but because she knew it like the back of her hand.

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