[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Stossel is a lot of things, but among the things he is not is either an economist. He is a TV journalist. Read his book, Give Me a Break. He tells a lot of stories on himself, how as a crusading young reporter at a local station he campaigned for a law whose unintended consequences made things worse, how he probably engaged in unintentional self-deception during a lawsuit. He has the humility to acknowledge mistakes.

[LearsFool]

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not down on Stossel. I watched a clip of him earlier explaining the “Broken Window Fallacy”, which was very well done. And I enjoyed “Give Me a Break”.

But this “it’s the economy, stupid” inanity has really infected this country...so much so that we end up applauding blackmail.

Maybe we should start saying, “You’re so stupid you think it’s the economy.” When you’re so “smart” that you can’t learn from the simplest truth, that is stupidity indeed. That’s Stossel sometimes, but I suspect it’s his libertarianism clouding his thinking.