Entries tagged with “Wall Street Journal” from Reality Window

Matt Taibbi sets the WSJ straight on disclosure standards and other facts regarding Hank Paulson's role in the recent economic turbulence we've experienced in a rant that must be read. The WSJ probably won't publish it so Matt did it for them.

Nice job, Matt.

The editors and reporters of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post should have a huge black mark on their performance review assessments this year.

David Fiderer has done your job for you.

Senator Chris Dodd has been slandered by your news articles and your editorials and you ought to be ashamed that a blogger has dug up the details on just how that happened rather than your own investigative reporters.

Go read and learn something.

Peggy Noonan has written a WSJ column which she begins by noting the sense of loss and pessimism and the loss of faith in our institutions. As one woman whom she talked with put it,

"It's the age of the empty suit." Those who were supposed to be watching things, making the whole edifice run, keeping it up and operating, just somehow weren't there.

That's such an apt phrase to describe our current institutions. She goes onto to recount a conversation that she had with another friend who holds a position of some authority in Washington.

An old friend ... told me the other day, from out of nowhere, that a hard part of his job is that there's no one to talk to. I didn't understand at first. He's surrounded by people, his whole life is one long interaction. He explained that he doesn't have really thoughtful people to talk to in government, wise men, people taking the long view and going forth each day with a sense of deep time, and a sense of responsibility for the future. There's no one to go to for advice.

He senses the absence too.

It's a void that's governing us.

And that void, that predominance of empty suits has wrought a profound change in the confidence of the American people and a palpably real downturn in their lives. Depression, worry, insomnia, anger, tears. These are all part of the daily battle for so many Americans whose lives have been thrown into such turmoil by people epitomized by Bernard Madoff and the government agencies that failed to stop him.

Peggy must spend a lot of time chatting because she then reports a conversation with yet another friend about what the future holds for us.

People are angry but don't have a plan, and they'll give the incoming president unprecedented latitude and sympathy, cheering him on. I told a friend it feels like a necessary patriotic act to be supportive of him, and she said, "Oh hell, it's a necessary selfish act--I want him to do well so I survive. We all do!"

Well, Peggy, I'm glad to see that there are some Republicans who see that it's in their own self-interest to support President-Elect Obama. You might want to try passing that concept along to some Republican Senators.

And thank you, Peggy, for ending with this:

The other day I called former Secretary of State George Shultz, because he is wise and experienced and takes the long view. I asked if he thought we should be optimistic about our country's fortunes and future. "Absolutely," he said, there is "every reason to have confidence." He told me the story of Sumner Schlicter, an economics professor at Harvard 50 years ago. "He was not the most admired man in his department, but he'd make pronouncements about the economy that turned out to be right more often than his colleagues'." After Schlicter died, a friend was asked to clean out his desk, and found the start of an autobiography. "It said, I'm paraphrasing, 'I have had a good record in my comments on and expectations of the American economy, and the reason is I've always been an optimist. How did I get that way? I was brought up in the West, where the future is more important than the past, in a family of scientists and engineers forever developing new things. I could never buy into the idea that we had crossed our last frontier, because I was brought up with people crossing new frontiers.'"

Mr. Shultz laid out some particulars of his own optimism. There is "the ingenuity, the flexibility, the strengths of the national economy." The labor force: "We are so blessed with human talent and resources." And the American people themselves. "They have intelligence, integrity and honor."

We should experience "the current crisis" as "a gigantic wake-up call." We've been living beyond our means, both governmentally and personally. "We have to be willing to face up to our problems. But we have a capacity to roll up our sleeves and get down to work together."

As a household whose income is directly dependent on the automotive industry, the situation has been grim, the nights long and filled with worry. We need hope. We need more people speaking out as George Schultz and we need to recognize that we can indeed do well. That enormous challenges also provide enormous opportunities.