[FoRK] Demonizing the hedge funds...

[Jeff Bone]

On Apr 18, 2008, at 9:16 AM, rst at ai.mit.edu wrote:
>
> I probably shouldn't post something like this heading into a
> weekend of intermittent connectivity at best, but... seriously,
> Jeff.  Don't you think you're going just a little over the top
> here?

Had I even remotely approached the level of hyperbole demonstrated in  
your <flame/> then yes;  but I don't think I did.  Look, I don't think  
it's at all surprising to anybody who is paying attention that NPR is  
as much a left-wing organ as Faux News is right-wing.  Correct?

The canary-in-the-coal-mine bit here is:  just as there was a  
surprisingly extremist right-wing undercurrent lurking back in 2000  
that surfaced completely in the wake of 9/11, so I'm beginning to  
believe that there's a surprisingly extremist economically left-wing  
undercurrent that's sort of gathering momentum these days.  The sub- 
prime mess, the fact that 2007 was the year of the greatest  
exaggeration of difference in wealth appreciation between top and  
bottom in the US since just before the Great Depression, etc. is  
playing the role of a kind of economic 9/11 galvanizing and powering  
that movement --- but the mass of accumulated resentment and degree of  
warp and twist to their notions of fairness and populist "right" among  
the lower economic strata in this country shouldn't be underestimated.

Believe me now, or believe me later...  you'll agree eventually.  I  
called the future Bush situation within hours of those planes going  
into the Trade Center --- and some folks around these parts got  
entirely bent about my "overreaction" at that time.  (Don't hear them  
rushing to Bush's defense now, do you?)

I'm calling this one now.  I'm good at this.  Place your bets. ;-)

jb