Category Archives: Media watch

David Dayen: A Revealing Episode in DC Groupthink

So this week I got an education in the mentality of “official” Washington.

Last week I was asked by a DC-based publication to give a comment on Corker-Warner, the flavor-of-the-month proposal to abolish Fannie and Freddie and reform mortgage finance. I basically take the same position as Yves on this issue: all of these GSE 2.0 plans assume a private label MBS market the way the proverbial economist on a desert island assumes a can opener.

Vale David Hirst

Yves here. Steve Keen sent this note along with his post:

The journalist David Hirst was both one of the few to warn of the crisis, and someone who became a good friend. He died last week, as a long term consequence of internal injuries sustained about ten years ago in the USA, when he tried to stop a woman being bashed.

His spouse asked me to see if I could get the attached published on NC, which was one of his favourite sites.

If you know David’s writing, you’ll understand what a loss this is. And if you missed his prescient and incisive commentary before and during the crisis, I hope you’ll sample his work below and get a sense of what a talent he was. Either way, I trust you’ll join me in sending condolences to David’s widow and his family, as well as to Steve.

Yanis Varoufakis: Occupying the Closure of Greek Public TV (Journalists at BBC, ABC, and CBC, Take Note). Updated

For those of us who grew up in the Greece of the neo-fascist colonels, nothing can stir up painful memories like a modern act of totalitarianism. When the television screen froze last night, an hour before midnight, as if some sinister power from beyond had pressed a hideous pause button, I was suddenly transported to the 60s and early 70s when a disruption in television or radio output was a sure sign that another coup d’ etat was in the offing. The only difference was that last night the screen just froze; with journalists still appearing tantalisingly close to finishing their sentence. At least the colonels had the good sense of pasting a picture of the Greek flag, accompanied by military tunes…

“Manufacturing Consent” 25 Years Later

If you haven’t read “Manufacturing Consent” by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, you really should. That book plus Walter Lippmann’s “Public Opinion” and Alex Carey’s “Taking the Risk Out of Democracy” are three essential reads on propaganda in the US.

This Edward Herman interview on the Real News Network gives a sense of the book’s thesis and impact.

Soros is Dead! Whoops, Not, Reuters Pulled Trigger Early

George Soros, along with being the man who broke the pound in 1992, has the interesting privilege of being able to read his own obituary. This is something money can’t buy. Reuters launched the report of the hedge fund pioneer/philanthropist’s demise a tad prematurely.

Ed Harrison snagged the text:

Krugman’s Bad Math on Cyprus

Paul Krugman, in a post earlier today, Cyprus: The Sum of All FUBAR, acts as if he has figured out what is the real problem with Cyprus. The only problem is his math is all wrong, and a better analysis undermines his major assertions.

Bill Black: O’Donnell Thinks Krugman is “A Lonely Voice Opposing Austerity” Because he Listens to MSNBC

By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Jointly posted with New Economic Perspectives

MSNBC persists in running a pro-austerity line by falsely presenting Paul Krugman as a isolated opponent of economic malpractice.

Dave Dayen: Yes, Katrina, Wall Street Won Again, and Progressives Need to Face Up to That

By David Dayen, a lapsed blogger, now a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter @ddayen

Greetings, NC readers! Yves has been nice enough to open up her Internet home to me, and I intend to grab the opportunity from time to time. This offer turned fortuitous after I wrote a little piece from Salon on the “anniversary” of the securitization fraud task force, announced at last year’s State of the Union address. Well, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, got very upset at my characterization of the task force

Quelle Surprise! The Administration Wants You to Believe it is Serious About Prosecuting Banks

There are times I feel sorry for the business reporters at the New York Times.