A New Low For the News Hour

Just one week after giving a woman sporting white power tattoos a forum, PBS News Hour gave a platform to the known credentialed bigot and author of the Bell Curve, Charles Murray in its weekly segment on economics, Making Sense. This segment usually makes little sense since it  is hosted by the economic illiterate and sneering doofus Paul Solman. Solman introduced Murray, as an economist. Murray’s training is in political science not economics.

The topic at hand was the rise of Trump. According to Murray, people support Trump because elites are mean to them. Examples of elites were people in the media, a conservative boogeyman. The grievances of people who support Trump may be legitimate but supporting Trump is going to do zero to alleviate them. Murray’s analysis is plain wrong, Hollywood  or the “liberal” media did not create their problems but the 1% favoring policies of tax cutting, deregulation and union busting favored by most Republicans are the cause of their woes, which Murray was mum about.

By the way where can I find this mythical beast of the liberal media? What passes for liberal media on TV these days  is nothing more than conventional wisdom soaked, Republican friendly claptrap and PBS (Pure Bull Shit) News Hour is no exception to this trend.

So tired of the both-sides-do-it BS

By two_kittehs

Why is PBS giving Economic Cranks a Forum?

Yesterday while watching Newshour I came across an interview of Chris Martenson by  Paul Solmon.  I had never heard of Martenson before yesterday. Martenson who has a PhD in neurotoxicology and an MBA has taken two apocalyptic strands of economic thinking from the left and the right  and woven them into a rich tapestry of frightening doomsday predictions which has gained him a devoted fan following. Martenson  worries about resource depletion, especially petroleum and runaway inflation. His solution; investing in precious metals,  living off the grid and raising one’s  food.   Like those predicting rapture Martenson has been predicting runaway inflation for a while now, if it hasn’t happened yet its just around the corner. He will tell you how  to avoid being processed for food when the economic apocalypse arrives.  Just buy his DVDs or subscribe to his newsletter, and don’t worry, you don’t have to pay him in gold bars he will gladly accept your worthless dollars out of the goodness of his heart.

Note: Despite what many deficits and debt  scolds have been saying the current levels of debt as compared to GDP are not the highest this country has seen. The debt/GDP ratio peaked just after the WWII and was the  precursor to an era of unprecedented economic growth.