Monday, March 9th, 2009
National Public Radio did some soul searching early today with a report that raised the question of whether or not news media goofed by "not asking the right questions" before the bottom fell out of the economy. How could such a monumental problem just "pop up" without journalists seeing it coming?
Maybe mainstream news gatherers were blindsided by the collapse, but plenty of non-mainstream commentators saw what was coming and said so. However, their warnings were considered "too negative" and unrealistic so they were widely ignored.
It may have helped if America's press corps had been exposed to some instruction about monetary history in grade school and college. They might have understood Milton Friedman's admonition "There is no such thing as a free lunch." They might have realized that the world is afloat on a sea of fiat money and was bound to eventually drown in it. They might have sounded the alarm early enough to prevent the real estate and other debt-based balloons from getting out of hand.
It's too late to shut the barn door. The horses got out. But it's not too late to start teaching the tots in public school what a dollar is and why it can't be created out of thin air. It could lead to new generations who'd be smart enough to avoid these painful boom/bust cycles.
Words of wisdom from Wrisley.com
No comments:
Post a Comment