John Stossel's program tonight on ABC News 20/20 will feature a piece called "Bailout and Bull," which discusses the bailout, hears from its proponents, and hears from some economists who think the bailout is, well, bull. Several economists our readers are familiar with participated in the interview with Stossel including Walter Williams, Bryan Caplan, Don Boudreaux, Ben Powell, Mario Rizzo, and me, among others.
I recently heard from a producer of 20/20 that Stossel's segment will include a bit from me. Check it out tonight on ABC News at 10 pm EST.
For more on the story, see this write-up from Stossel and Andrew Kirell on the ABC News website: "Is the Government Bailout Just Dollars and Nonsense?"
I wish the whole hour was on TARP and stimulus.
Posted by: Kevin | March 13, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Kevin, second that. But at least it was 15 min of anti-stimulus, anti-bailout coverage. Also showed that Barack the Blessed is wrong, wrong, wrong on this issue, which is more than I imagine most of the MSM will be doing.
Posted by: James | March 14, 2009 at 01:04 AM
John Stossel as Michael Moore, screaming at capitol hill creeps me out.
Dr. Leeson did well; a nice sound bite.
For a brief moment I felt like the country was a bit more sane than it seems on most other news broadcasts.
Posted by: Michael | March 14, 2009 at 09:05 AM
Vertical.
Posted by: Mario Rizzo | March 14, 2009 at 12:32 PM
"Vertical."
Is that a way of saying "straight up"?
Posted by: liberty | March 14, 2009 at 03:18 PM
Leeson has made the big time! It was good to see a program that had economists that actually knew what they are talking about. Denny Hoyer saying "all economists agree" that more spending is the way out and describing our leaders' decision-making policy based on an "ask the audience" option was crazy (I would have personally phoned a friend...maybe an Austrian Economist to tell me how to fix the situation but whatever)
Posted by: Bobbby | March 15, 2009 at 09:34 AM
Now that the public, and not just crazy people like me, are angry about the AIG (and other) counterparty bailouts, I keep hearing or reading about how we "had" to save AIG and other companies to avoid a "financical meltdown." I thought credit was "frozen" but whatever... Bernanke apparently used the term on 60 Minutes.
QUESTION: What exactly do they mean by "financial meltdown"? Does this concept even have a concrete referent, or is it more like "Boo!" or "hand over the money!"?
Surely "financial meltdown" means something more serious than Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan finding new owners under bankruptcy/FDIC receivership, no?
Posted by: James | March 15, 2009 at 08:21 PM
Dear Liberty,
"Vertical" refers to the fact that Pete Leeson believes in 100% crowding out of private spending by government spending (as he said on the program).More generally, he believes that the aggregate supply curve is vertical at the full-employment output.That is why I said "vertical." It is nicer than saying he is wrong.
Posted by: Mario Rizzo | March 15, 2009 at 08:27 PM
Mario,
Ah, I see. I thought it was a really hip way of congratulating him for his tv appearance.
gln
p.s. I doubt that he thinks the aggregate supply curve is vertical (at full employment or at any output level) because I doubt that he believes in the aggregate supply curve. Or, probably, the tooth fairy. He is young, but not that young.
p.p.s. I am not sure that he actually said that there would be 100% crowd out. He said that "more likely a dollar that government takes out of the private sector is a dollar that the private sector won't have to spend" if I recall correctly. This is not false-- one could still argue that government's dollar would spur aggregate demand and create a new dollar for the private sector to spend: but that would involve believing either (a) in the aggregate demand multiplier or (b) that the dollar would have sat idle in the private sector, and that wise, omniscient government will put it to good use. Not sure which is more ridiculous.
Posted by: liberty | March 16, 2009 at 12:35 PM
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Posted by: Openeducation | December 14, 2009 at 12:18 PM