I liked this quote from Barney Frank:
He also downplayed concerns that talent would flee the industry.
"I don't know where people would go for comparable salaries," Frank said. "I guess perhaps they could star in major motion pictures."
But National Review's Veronique de Rugy sees it as an "anti-capitalist and anti-wealth mentality [that] is scary and very anti-American."
Hey, you know what else is anti-American? Being named "Veronique de Rugy."
I digress. Anyway, de Rugy offers this riposte to Frank:
if Mister Frank really believes that chasing well-paid employees to go elsewhere is a winning strategy and won't have any impact on the industry, then I suggest that next time he is sick he goes to a hospital where doctors are poorly paid and see how he feels about that.
Of course, Frank didn't say that reduced pay would have no deleterious effect on the quality of any profession, he said it about the finance profession. It's telling that de Rugy changed the subject from finance to medicine. Exactly what horrors does she think would occur if we had less brilliant people flocking to the finance industry? We'd wind up with a bunch of hacks who, I don't know, crashed the world economy because they never considered the possibility that historically sky-high housing prices might drop?
In any case, as Robert Solow suggests, reducing the incentive for talented people to enter finance might be a feature, not a bug. One of the problems of an economy where the finance industry earns 45% of all corporate profits is that it exerts a massive brain drain away from productive pursuits into inventing "ways to spot and carry out favorable transactions minutes or even seconds before the next most clever competitor can make a move."
So you can see why de Rugy changed the subject from finance to medicine. But let's stay on medicine for a moment. What if we did pay doctors less? Would it be a disaster? Well, France pays doctors a lot less, and its quality of care is so good that even hard-core libertarians go nuts for it when they actually come into close contact with its system. It wouldn't necessarily be easy to impose that system here -- among other things, you'd need to reduce malpractice fees and the cost of medical school, as France does. But it does show that de Rugy's simple free market model doesn't work as clearly as conservatives want to believe.
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"Hey, you know what else is anti-American? Being named 'Veronique de Rugy.'"
I laughed, but I'm ashamed of it. You also should be ashamed. Making fun of people's names, and of people's presumably foreign origins, is against much of the best of liberalism.
"Hey, you know what else is anti-American? Being named 'Veronique de Rugy.'"
I laughed, but I'm ashamed of it. You also should be ashamed. Making fun of people's names, and of people's presumably foreign origins, is against much of the best of liberalism.
TARFON: I think that you're missing one of the key benefits of being a liberal. Because your substantive positions are good, you get to make insensitive jokes. That's always been my understanding, anyway.
TARFON: I think that you're missing one of the key benefits of being a liberal. Because your substantive positions are good, you get to make insensitive jokes. That's always been my understanding, anyway.
jhildner1, I prefer to think of it as an "ironic" mocking of those who would make such a distasteful joke sincerely. However, this rationale very rarely succeeds in preventing me from getting my ass kicked.
jhildner1, I prefer to think of it as an "ironic" mocking of those who would make such a distasteful joke sincerely. However, this rationale very rarely succeeds in preventing me from getting my ass kicked.
yes, adaglas, and I am sorry, I keep telling my 5 year old not to beat you up.
yes, adaglas, and I am sorry, I keep telling my 5 year old not to beat you up.
Barney Frank is a true American:
-Gay jewish lawyer
-Amusing, even funny
-Never created any economic value in his life
-Limited/no ethics (ask Steve)
-No knowledge of economics/business
In 2003, while the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal for transferring oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Congress blocked the proposal. Frank stated, "These two ... view full comment
Barney Frank is a true American:
-Gay jewish lawyer -Amusing, even funny -Never created any economic value in his life -Limited/no ethics (ask Steve) -No knowledge of economics/business
In 2003, while the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, Frank opposed a Bush administration proposal for transferring oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to a new agency that would be created within the Treasury Department. The proposal reflected the administration's belief that Congress "neither has the tools, nor the stature" for adequate oversight. Congress blocked the proposal. Frank stated, "These two entities...are not facing any kind of financial crisis.... The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing
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