George Will Doesn't Think Economy Will Be An Issue In 2008
By Logan Murphy Saturday Sep 01, 2007 9:02pm
On this morning's This Week right wing talker George Will, The American Prospect's Robert Reich and Matthew Bai of The New York Times made up the round table. They were talking economic populism and George Will, in his infinite wisdom, proclaimed that the economy is strong and won't be an issue in the 2008 election. Quick to point out how out of touch reality Will is, Robert Reich educates him on the reality of how the economy is working for the average American and how we're heading for the rocks.
Download | play 
Download | play (thanks to Heather for the videos)
Will: "I think we're now in the 69th consecutive month of recovery, despite of the doom-sayers, one of which is sitting to my right. Uh - I think the economy will not be an issue because the economy is in terrific shape."
Reich: "A recession is coming - and you can count on my words. Unfortunately."
Login or Register to post comments.
FRIST
Of course, not after another fake terrorist attack...
What qualifies George Will to comment on whether the economy will be an issue? Why do these shows have pundits on to talk about things on which they are not experts?
George Will doesn't think the economy will be an issue in the next election? I seem to recall TurdBlossom Rove saying he didn't think Iraq would be an issue in the next election either...what is it with these Republican water carriers that they deny things that are right in front of their eyes? Liars, or just plain stupid, or both?
George Will has no idea of the struggles of normal people! Of course, Reich could teach Will how the economy really works if he were willing to losten!
When did the wingnuts stop wearing bow-ties? I just noticed that Will wasn't wearing one today? What gives? Are these clowns getting out of the 19th century?
GonzoD @ 5:
The only thing Will listens to is the sound of his own voice.
Oh and hey mr. Will? Economies don't recover for 69 straight months...Republicans 69 in airport washrooms......
Maybe he should try walking into any middle class neighborhood and asking them if the economy will be an issue.
I guess George Will didn't ready the recent report that says American incomes are up BECAUSE WE WORK LONGER THAN 40/HOURS A WEEK! And, employer-sponsored health insurance for children is down. Yeah, everything's okey-dokey.
Will may be right. Rather the war on Iraq and Iran may be the issue in 2008 as Christian extremist George Bush and his criminal rouge regime are making their final plans for a war on Iran http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece as they continue with their crusade in the middle east with their sights on bringing Armageddon to the planet.
The Democrats have control of congress now and control of the purse strings so if they don't do something to stop this madman and his henchmen they will own this war too.
Of course, Robert Reich was instrumental in pushing through much of the pro-corporate "free" trade agenda that has made all of our working lives more precarious. Hardly the person that I want arguing my side of things. This panel reflected the Corporate world's idea of the legitimate parameters of debate.
Of course, when pundits talk about the economy it is always code talk for the boom and bust cycles of financial markets. Millions of American wage earners have been in a recession for 30 years.
The "economy" is in great shape because the republicans will run to the aid of rich people anytime their profits fall below 3000%. Loan money to subprime borrowers, lose your ass (as should have been expected), no problem ... bailout from the republicans. Hell yeah, the "economy" is doing fine. Too bad the "economy" is only representative of 2% of the American population.
Matthew Bai's point is most interesting, and should get (/should have gotten) more play--Tony Snow saying he can't make it on some $160,000 should resurface several times between now and November 2008.
The whole concept of "intellectual capital" is specious. One will find no one more reviled in the corporate world or least likely to be promoted than an intellectual.
Kissing up, being ruthless and conformity are the qualities most valued in corporate hierarchy.
George Will never talks to middle class Americans. so he wouldn't know.
Robert Reich represents that element of the elite world view that understands that extreme economic inequality is unsustainable and socially destabilizing in the long term. In that regards, he a a Classical Liberal.
has anyone ever given any thought as to how george will is an a-hollio.
incredibly boring and kindo a whore for the dollar.
my money is he likes it in the can
George Will's so stodgy, he once went a week w/out taking a dump.
With an administration hell-bent on allowing unregulated and likely dangerous trucking companies from Mexico to flood our highways, all manner of never-inspected, defective, and sometimes lethal Chinese imports to flood our store shelves with not a whit of concern for the economic or public safety impacts, the importation of tech workers from overseas through the H1-B visa programs in order to hold engineering salaries down and deny skilled jobs to qualified citizens, and the continuing deterioration of the number and quality of health insured, not to mention the continuous erosion of our economy, prestige, and standing in the world (with a Democratic party that seems often ignorant of these problems and generally unsure of its position on most of them) who can be at all surprised? The formation of the Democratic party platform will be a most interesting struggle indeed. Are you even listening Hillary? Or Obama and many others? There is a groundswell forming of enormous proportions that the Republicans could never reconcile with their core constituency, philosophy, or campaign donors and the Democrats could find stripping away both the party's left wing and many middle-class voters simultaneously to a third party. Time to avoid the split now instead of waiting until later to subsume the rift. The only upside is that the Republicans appear to be even more clueless to the point of irrelevance. Of course, this is all an aside to Democratic party complicity in the invalidation of the Constitution and the cruel, illegal, and immoral crusade against the Iraqis, for which truly "sage" candidates must assign blame to the victims themselves, but that would entail typing another paragraph and my ability to suffer fools has come in only short bursts lately.
George doesn't understand that the view sitting at the top of the ladder looking down is a lot better than being at the bottom looking up.
It's revealing that most profitable corporations are making that money overseas. With medicare and social security ratios going to 2 1/2 workers to each retiree and many high schools hitting a 50% drop-out rate, we haven't even begun to see the extent of the problem.
George Will is ignorant as the day is long who cares what he thinks?
One thing I really, REALLY get tired of hearing the talking-head news-readers tell us day after day is how "great" the U.S. economy is.
I'll bet there were long periods in the history of Rome, or the U.S. Confederacy, for that matter, in which you could look at the overall economy and state how "great" it was. The fact that those economies were dependent on slavery? PISH, TOSH...WHO CARES? We're talking about the health of the economy here, my friend! If some people weren't chosen by the gods to be born into a privileged class, well, that's not MY problem!
Snowball @ 12:
As we used to say in the 60s, "right on"
Karl Bauer @ 22:
Well he sure made up for it today.
CD @ 25:
Fukin' nobody. TV is one giant wasteland of ignorance and mediocrity which is why I don't own a set.
Damn, I can't remember the last time George Will was right about anything... I wonder if he knows the last time he was right about any prediction?
rahm_emanuel_is_a_tool @ 27:
They are damn near all tools lately. They are still dealing in the terms and conditions of 2004, have no sense of the current voter sentiment or any true leadership qualities and could reap the whirlwind. Or perhaps they will succeed temporarily only to get blindsided in 2010 and/or 2012, a waste of precious time that we simply cannot afford.
This is exactly what gets to me about the Repugs - the minute they have problems (such as Tony Snowjob), why then they cry unfair even though their problems may pale in comparison to the average American's problems.
Look at Snowjob. Yes he has cancer, but he makes a hell of a lot more at $150,000 or so than many people out there, has fewer kids than many out there and has full health coverage (and of a better quality than many out there), but cries that that is not enough. But he still has no compunction carrying water for the people who think the average American and his health coverage are fine, and that the economy is great for everyone because its great for the top 5%. And of course George Will, another beneficiary of the wingnut welfare program goes along with this talking point. It's like the (purely apocryphal) story about Marie Antoinette saying "let then eat cake" when hearing about the starving french citizens.
Rove talks about the elite and effete Dems. Sorry, but the Repugs fit this profile perfectly. A classic case of projection.
But,but You guys missed George's point....' 50% of Americans are below the average in intelligense' ! thanx for that. next week's profound statement will be 'the sky is blue'. Sheesh!
David Hawes @ 33:
Yes, but he did emphasize that there always will be 50% of people with below average intelligence - he knows this is a tautology - it was just used for emphasis of his point, which was that the most intelligent part of the population (in the top half) will continue making more in a knowledge-based economy and the least intelligent (in the bottom half) will continue making less. The problem is that he tied knowledge expertise strictly with IQ. This is an elitist position and a stupid position. Many high-IQ people I have known have ended up failures. Knowledge expertise is probably not so dependent on IQ. And success certainly isn't. Look at George Will and George Bush for example.
This extreme amount of debt creation and Will thinks the economy is doing "great?"
He knows better, I think.
...
Otay @ 34:
I KNOW why He said it,OTAY. i was pointing out the obvious. BTW,i heard that when Ike was told this,he replied 'How can that Be!'
I always liked Robert Reich. It's almost sad to listen to him speak intelligent truths today, because it only makes the incompetence and insularity of Bush's men all the more apparent.
Clinton had Robert Rubin at the treasury (he prevented an economic crisis in 1998 when Long-Term Capital collapsed), Reich as Labor Secretary, Bruce Babbitt at Interior, Donna Shelala as Sec. of Health and Human Services - all highly accomplished policy-makers. Clinton turned deficits into large surpluses, generated great economic growth, and (temporarily) reversed a 25-year trend of declining average real personal incomes.
Bush? All he did was cut taxes for the richest. In the midst of a ruinously expensive war. Madness.
David Hawes @ 36:
In the current environment, above average IQ is actually a dangerous attribute to have. Unless you're willing to swallow your conscience and plot a trajectory into the 94th to 99th percentile of wealth, as must be done 95% of the time. More numbers than I'm generally comfortable using, but one gets the point I think.
Let's see...things I hated about this interview...
...the other two candidates...grrrr
...50% of children are below average intelligence...yeah what a watse of time and resources grrr.
...we're in the 69th month of the recovery...don't you get better at some point? 69th month of recovery?
These guys are a waste of time.
CD @ 25:
yes, and he's condescending and hateful of the 'riff-raff', too
The cons never see outside of their gated community. They don't care if you lose your home or that people are getting screwed by their health insurance like Jane from FDL is or the people that don't have any health insurance or how the price of oil was 27 dollars a barrel before the war
diggus biggus asked the right question here... what qualifies George freakin' Will to add anything to this discussion? He's simply another undeservedly smug and sanctimonious professional pundit who interrupts a vacation in the Hamptons in order to get in front of a camera and pull opinions out of his ass. These opinions are based entirely on a myopic and largely doctrinaire perspective that has little or nothing to do with the way the world actually is. Which probably explains why he's wrong again and again and again.
He was wrong about the consequences of invading Iraq, he was (and remains) wrong about Global warming, he deliberately distorted Jim Webb's verbal exchange with President Bush.
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/nov/30/george_will_dist...
Recently Will pompously predicted that the Federal Reserve would maintain interest rates at current levels, only to see an announcement on August 17th that they were cutting discount rates.
How about setting George Will in a corner wearing a dunce cap for the next ten years or so and let him comment on something he actually understands, like the Designated Hitter rule, for example.
David Hawes @ 33:
And Will clearly implies that because 50% of the people aren't intelligent enough to generate intellectual capital, this somehow justifies increasing income inequality.
This is amazing (and amazingly callous) in itself - but it also means that Will and his ilk implicitly don't believe that an economy based on intellectual capital can or should generate wealth for all, as the manufacturing economy did for 30 years after WW2.
Will clearly states in this clip: Economic wealth today = more intellectual capital = more income inequality. Therefore, income inequality is good. Incredible, but this is what the guy said. If the rich are getting richer while Joe Middle-class can't afford medical insurance, the world is working as it should - as long as the (doctored) GDP figures continue to grow.
Could he be more self-serving, narrow, callous, class-biased and crass?
Stick to baseball George, you putz.
David Hawes @ 35:
Yes, I had heard that story and had a laugh. I would like to make a snide remark about the IQs of Repub presidents from this statement, but I won't. ;)
he is a blithering idiot
But the statement Reich was making was the separation in income between the college educated and the high school educated. I know some lower than average intelligence (or at least lower than the average people I know) whose parents have a lot of money and they got their college degrees. I know some higher than average intelligence kids who did not have the money for college, started working to get themselves through and just ended up working....
Do you actually think college is geared only for the top 50%? I'm not talking Ivy League here - I'm talking about your college degree....
Annoyed Canuck @ 42:
I could not agree more with your sentiment, Annoyed. This is support for the hypothesis that the Repub elite really think there is a special breed of humans (of which they are a part, naturally) which are endowed and selected by providence to generate wealth, and prosper from it. And then there is the rest of humanity, rightfully consigned to a meager and dwindling existence which is fair since they do not have the attributes, pedigree and inherited capital that the blessed people have - hell, they probably hold humanity back (/sarcasm). It is like they really think prosperity for their own and failure of the others is good for humanity.
I think George Steph. might be a little out of touch himself if Tony Snow sounded just a little "tinny".
A $168 thou on the backs of the taxpayer who make considerably less working two jobs and they have no health care or very limited care.
George Will seems pleasantly content in stating the facts of 50% of Americans will be uneducated. I am sure he will give the typical republican debate of privatizing schools and rail of teacher unions, not throwing more money at education. But fact is that Corporations throw money at big advertisers and CEO's and their performance bonus'. There is no benefit from performing outstanding in the lower ranks.
some of those exclusive Wealthy myths, that employees are lazy because they see one lazy person, they have a higher degree and therefore are smarter, They come from wealth, privilege and are smarter, That God chose them to be born of wealth so they are anointed.
The GOP and there water carrying fools will expect us to building pyramids for Pharaoh soon enough.
It seems to me that the economy has kept on going for two reasons. 1st, people have used refinancing and appreciation in the value of their homes to spend money. 2nd, the government has been incurring record deficits which pumps money into the economy. Greenspan has already warned that the government borrowing can't go on for ever. Sooner or later, that is going to come true. Quoting President Reagan, "... we have been mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. ... You and I, as individuals can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why then should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by that same limitation?"
Now, we're seeing the first leg drop. Home prices aren't appreciating, because people were induced into buying homes using deceptive loan instruments, which increased demand, which increased prices. Now, the loan instruments have either kicked in principal repayments, on interest only loans, or on adjustables, have increased the monthly payment, forcing homeowners to sell.
There is pressure on China to allow their currency to "float" against the dollar. Trouble with that is, that China was induced into purchasing a lot of our national debt because the yuan was pegged to the dollar. So, if unpegging the yuan to the dollar was to proceed, it will induce the Chinese to unload dollar holdings. So, I think the Republican's advocacy of running up the national debt will eventually cause the economy to tank, especially if the world's reserve currency continues to switch from the dollar to the euro.
The baby boomers have to be the dumbest generation in American history. This constituency, more than the younger people, voted Bush into office. What they voted for is to loan the Social Security surpluses to the regular federal budget, while deficits were deliberately being run up so that Social Security can't be paid back. They haven't saved for retirement, and they're facing national consumption taxes on anything they buy with the reduced Social Security check they may ultimately be receiving. The head in the sand approach will turn into the bite in the ass.
But, hey, praise the Lord.
Nice screencap. He digging for gold?
I used to have some respect for George Will. But he's become a sad knee-jerk conservative apologist that pretends having a big vocabulary is the same as having logic and morality.
George Will and his ilk are desperate to push the idea that the economy is working well. Things are weakening but he does not have the intellectual honesty to admit it. Stress points are beginning to show but Will would rather middle class Americans sink than him admit conservatives are wrong. The conservative approach to economic management has proven time and again to be blindingly short-sighted and only beneficial to the very wealthy.
Conservative economics put great stress upon the middle class.
The greatest conservative trick of the past century has been convincing middle America that conservative economics is good for them, when the absolute opposite is true.
What George Will fails to acknowledge is that the disparity in knowledge is due to the increasing privatization of intellectual property. People with lower IQ may take longer to learn, but they are not necessarily condemned to the IGNORANT except by the ongoing conservative SCAM. For Liberals, ignorance is a problem to be solved. For conservatives it is a profit center.
FreeDUMB @ 52:
Well said and this is the very first thing that struck me (right between the eyes) the first time i ever heard the term "Intelectual Property."
The problem is, even when his prognostications prove wrong, why aren't doushebags like George Will held to account then for what they say now? It's like Cheney's, "...they' greet us as liberators. When are these assholes ever hel to account when they're wrong?
what a dumb thing to say, economy is *ALWAYS* an issue..
Right on , Darth. Reich, as usual, will be proven correct and Will wrong on all counts. This is because Will isn't qualified to carry Reich jockstrap (no Larry Craig jokes, please). Yet anyone who regularly watches these shows (guilty as charged here) knows that Will has a seat at this table while Reich will be lucky if he is asked to appear 1-2 times a year.
And we wonder why 50% of our students are intellectually inferior. Perhaps it's because we're bombarded with blathering from the likes of Will.
Will is just one of the media hacks that shill for the GOP.
You can put as much weight to what he says as a letter from Publisher's Clearing House that says "You may have already won!"
I believe a large stick needs to be applied to all those sitting around the round table until the grey stuff comes out. Not that I have anger issues, but those f*#ks sitting around the table don't seem to have a clue about what's going on in this piece o sh#t country we're living in...
Here is what should be the theme song for Will and the rest of the neo thugs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6RH-hkC0Cs
They are fiddling while Rome burns.
The Corporate Owned Media is this era's version of the sideshow "carney". Keep the TV turned off and regain your sanity.
Us everyday working folk will have to clean up the Republican vomitorium.
Brings back memories.....
IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Back in 1979, just before Three Mile Island, Will stated categorically that a China Syndrome accident with a nuclear reactor could not happen here. He's a fool.
George Will lives in fantasyland.
no we are not "making it" George! but we have the intelligence to recognize why!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jTW0y6kazWM
Lying, delusional or simply ignorant. What a horrible way to live.
littlebear @ 1 says:
Hey George Will, it seems just great if you're wealthy as all crap.... Enjoying those hefty taxcuts?
Why are people like Will who is consistantly wrong over and over and over again brought onto this shows as some kind of "experts"?
George Will is dead wrong about 50% of Americans being under average intelligence. His statement goes to show that he shouldn't be on TV. How does a man who theoretically took statistics and should understand a bell curve, make such a stupid, idiotic statement? If you look at intelligence distribution, you should see that the vast majority of Americans - probably close to 70 are bunched up at about the middle. The remaining 30 percent is distributed between above and below average intelligence. His statement is a blatant lie and I don't know why he was allowed to get away with it.
The economy will be right up there with the war and health care in it's importance to the next election. I sincerely hope Mr. Will and the rest of the Republican don't know that. It will be kind of fun watching their reaction to having someone hand them their asses......
The headline should be amended to say: George Will Doesn't Think.
The economy is great, provided that you are the CEO of
a large company, or you work in a job that pays your
health insurance, and retirement. The economy is great
if your stock portfolio is increasing in value every year.
The economy is great if you believe that deficits really
don't matter.
However if you live without health insurance, or your
home loan company is about to go south; if $2.75
a gallon gas uses up what little left over income you
have, your son or daughter just gave up on college
because of the cost, then you most likely view the
state of the economy rather differently than Mr. Will.
Will and others like him do not want this election to be
about pocket book issues, because if it is, it spells even more trouble for the conservative nit-wits who have
led this country down the economic prim-rose path
for the last seven years.
Elections are always about the econmy, because when you walk into a voting booth and pull the curtain, your vote
will reflect your current condition and your outlook for the
future.
A war gone sour, and the rich getting richer, at the expense
of the average citizen, I think that even the "dumbest"
fifty percent will be able to determine who is to blame.
Joe Klein's conscience @ 6:
Tie wise, yes. Brainwise, NO. They are still blind and deaf.
They live in a different world than the rest of us.
It's absolutely true that Will and the other Rethug. White House lie spewers, with their fear propaganda, are brought up this way to be sooooo out of touch with reality and will never get it or care to take their blinders off.
He is right, the main issue will the the Iran war.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece
of course.
because no one ever considers their own private pcoketbook issues when voting.
Oh, it's an issue alright, but there is such a plethora of GOP failures that my fear is the Democrats are are not going to be able to pick out one or two or even a few in order to have a hard-hitting campaign. There are so many GOP failures that the campaign might appear too diffuse. For example, look at the congressional hearings we have been having: there are so many that the Dems make an initial splash and then the subjects seem to be dropped. Where are we on Plame, Tillman, and the fired US Attorneys? And as you pointed out in the excellent post above on possible war crimes, where are the Dems on torture, on loss of our constitutional rights, on the occupation, on all the forms of graft which have gone on, on global warming, on separation of church and state, the failure of education? Where do you start?
It's time now to bring the crazy Republican Party back to Planet Earth
by starting a movement to have Democrats and Independents
change party affiliation (or lack thereof) and become Republicans.
The Republican base has taken us down a rat hole and it's
time to effect their primaries and elections. The partisanship will stop
when the Republican Party has liberals, moderates and independents
among it's members.
Ruthless People @ 11:
My fear is that the extremist wings of the parties will pick the candidates and the Democrats could shoot themselves in the foot again for president. Can you imagine a Romney for president?
I expect there to be a lot more local governments to move Democrat. Let's just hope the Senate gets to 60 seats.
George Will doesn't know shit!
[...] The amazing thing in this video is the truth that is quashed by the people that are in charge of the nation. Tony Snow cannot survive on his White House Press Secretary salary and full benefits. WHAT?!?!?! How is this not an indictment on the economic standing of the US? If someone making $168,000 with full benefits is having to quit his job in order to get a better job so he can survive then what are the rest of us to do? Story is here [...]
I am sick to death of letting a bunch of country bumpkin red necks choose our candidates.
I say let's get the primary out of OHIO.
It is simply NOT FAIR to the people to keep choosing the presidential candidates by the same group of red state loonies.
Yellowbird @ 80:
right you are , kucinich 08
myiq2xu @ 57:
hey its just buisness , will shills for the repukes ,the money rolls in , the cash works wonders for the traitors , course the hangman would be better!
Will has an audience and he "services" that audience all in a day's work. You'll note that he says "I don't THINK the economy etc." which tells me he's not entirely convinced himself.
What a crock of shit half of America's children are below intelligence...always has been and always will be.....not only is that BS it's disgusting, daunting, denigrating and shows he has no hope for America's children to say that....what he should've said is eventually more than half of America's children won't be able to afford college. Economy will be and is a bigger and bigger problem every year. Just....smh.
So George Will, you think the economy is in great shape, well it probably is for you, but not for most Americans. Of course you will never acknowledge that, though you know it. George Will you are a major shithead.
As they say in Germany, George Will is an Arschloch. He should retire and go play with his bunnies at Hef's mansion.
Login or Register to post comments.