Liberal economic historian Jeff Madrick discusses the history of American government role in the economy with Fox News’ James Pinkerton, suggesting that the notion of a laissez-faire early America is a myth. It’s a very informative, and is really what a conversation between a liberal adult and a conservative adult should look like. Unfortunately, it’s not the type of discussion which draws ratings.
Highlights:
Jeff’s book “The Case for Big Government” (02:10)
The myth of a laissez-faire early America (09:14)
What Milton Friedman got wrong (10:26)
Jeff says Alan Greenspan’s model never really worked (06:44)
Stimulus worries (05:07)
Is government smart enough to rescue the economy? (07:22)
What’s distracting to me is that Pinkerton sounds so much like Al Franken.
Anyway, there are other “diavlogs” like this one at bloggingheads.tv
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February 26, 2009 at 8:33 am
Anonymous
The conservative guy seems very subdued conceding way too many points for this to be considered a “debate.” I don’t have an hour to spend watching it but I skipped around and towards the end he says something remarkable. Basically he says that if conservative economic principles can’t hold up in a crisis then they probably don’t have any value.
Are conservative economics dead?
February 26, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Eric Kirk
I think Pinkerton may be having a little bit of an existential crisis, as should any free thinking conservative at this point. I’m not saying that the whole theory is necessarily defunct. But it’s certain not applicable in this kind of crisis.