Friday, December 29, 2006

Mojo Economics

This morning NPR cheers about how great Wall Street is. First Jim Zarroli tells us "If nothing else 2006 will be remembered as the year when the stock market regained its mojo, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average finally broke out of its post 9/11 stupor and began setting records again. On Wall Street these days there is optimism to spare."

Then Renee Montagne follows with a piece to remind us that "the impact of that stock market mojo that Jim just mentioned is champagne corks popping well ahead of New Year’s Eve." Montagne then brings on yet another right-wing analyst, James Glassman of the far right American Enterprise Institute (an NPR favorite), the National Review, and the rightist-freee market web site TechCentralStation.com to talk about the bloated bonuses of investment company CEO's. Glassman states, "It would be nice if perhaps the people wouldn’t take so much money and distribute it back to the shareholders or more back to the employees, but 'Hey this is Wall Street.'"

So for those of you who with jobs who worry about health insurance premiums eating up any salary increases you might have, for those of you with no health insurance, for those of you with jobs that don't pay a decent wage, for those of you with no jobs, and for those of you concerned about the squandering of our national wealth on war--calm down, and remember "Hey, this is Wall Street!"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Remember, this is the same James Glassman who, shilling for Wall Street, penned a tome entitled "Dow 36,000" in 1999. How many people, gulled by this idiot's loonybins forecast, lost their life savings when the market subsequently tanked. But hey, caveat emptor, you suckers! That's Wall Street!

I mean, isn't anyone ever dropped from the Golden Rolodex when their predictions are wrong time after time?

I think we should compile a list of frequent NPR guests/analysts who are famous mainly for their inaccuracy.

Happy New Year!