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Alain Saffel › Likes
On plane I am sitting next to John Bohn. Was an economist for Reagan. What he has to say is more depressing than CNBC.
Iggy Mwangi, Caio, Roney Smith and 77 other people liked this
So tell us more. What did he have to say?
- Alexander Falk
Please interview him and post it. Video would be great!
- Alain Saffel
Wow, you can't escape.
- Shawn Farner
We're all screwed /conversation
- Dean Clark
He is California's Public Utilities Commissioner too. Thinks focusing on executive pay is misguided. Says the stimulus bill is just pork and won't create short term jobs. Thinks the financial system is broken and needs an overhaul. Says that capitalism might have been harmed permanently by bankers and wall street.
- Robert Scoble
Let me guess, massive government spending ISN'T what we need right now? How about further tax cuts WITH fiscal responsibility? As we learned with the Reagan administration (and as with JFK too) tax cuts are good for the economy.
- Kevin
Wait till our troops finally come home too! Hundreds of thousands of our youth will be affected by PTSD. We gotta face the music at some point - unfortunately.
- Jerry Gonzalez
I will interview him during flight. Leaving now see you in six hours or so.
- Robert Scoble
Ask him what he sees coming inflation wise.
- Dean Clark
Interesting that he'd say capitalism might have been harmed permanently by bankers and Wall Street. Now the pendulum is about to swing from one extreme to the other?
- Alain Saffel
Where's the "now I'm depressed" button on FF?
- Patrick Driscoll
from twhirl
Looks like a little regulation is a good thing, like having referees in sports to make sure the game is played fairly.
- Alain Saffel
Dean: more inflation coming.
- Robert Scoble
Yep. Facing the music alright. 8, make that twelve years of voodoo economics finally coming home to roost.
- Jim Addz No Value
The system indeed needs an overhaul. Our economy thrives on the creation of needs for products and services consumers did not know they wanted or needed - it was unsustainable as it was.
- Bill
Although I am interested in what he has to say, and I applaud Robert for getting this interview, and I'm looking forward to reading it, I think we need to take this with a grain of salt here. What's the headline? "Longtime Republican Thinks Obama's Economic Plan Is A Bad Idea."
- Mitch Wagner
Mitch: he doesn't come off as very partisian. He has lots of friends in high places.
- Robert Scoble
I don't think it's a matter of partisanship, it's more a matter of world view. If you view tax cuts as the only viable stimulus, then everything else looks wrong. Yet these are the same guys who have never seen it coming.
- Alex Scoble
Robert you should setup a blog that is simply, "interesting people that sit next to me on planes," it would be a great RSS feed
- anna sauce
+1000 anna!
- Susan Beebe
Robert, I find that quite believable. And expect he'll have some good points to make. And Obama's stimulus plan is not above reproach. But, still, he's coming at this with a certain ideological bias, and that bias is the opposite of Obama's. Asking him to comment on Obama's fiscal plan is like asking a Windows guy his opinion of the Mac.
- Mitch Wagner
Ask him what the impact of the berlin wall was to US finance/economics at that time
- anna sauce
I'd love to hear his take on how we get out of this mess, especially since GWB made the tough decisions to right our fiscal house after years of deficit spending, before his successors allowed the creation of huge imbalances by pumping up the money supply. More than the question of how good or bad is the Obama plan, I'd like to know what he'd actually prescribe and what evidence (historical or theoretical) he'd use to support his suggestions.
- Cecyl Hobbs
Ask - what CAN be done to salvage the US...strike that...Global... economy?
- Susan Beebe
I'd also be curious to see if he believes that increased banking regulations combined with the stimulus package (whether the GOP or Obama version) will result in the flight of "smart" capital out of the U.S.
- Cecyl Hobbs
Cecyl, I'm confused by your first sentence. GWB didn't right the fiscal house after deficit spending, he inherited a balanced budget and ran up a record deficit. And he's only had one successor, who's been in office less than a month. IOW, huh?
- Mitch Wagner
Love to hear the interview, Robert. And I agree with Anna's idea :) Thanks for sharing.
- Arif Widianto
Mitch, sorry - I forgot an initial. GHWB. Originally, I was going to type "Bush I."
- Cecyl Hobbs
Ask him to be a regular - love to hear more of what he says.
- Chris Rogers
At this time, unfortunately, everyone is trying to outdo everyone else in being negative.
- Lyndon
You have to fight back. Negativity breeds negativity. Manias and panics are both an equal part of humanity's globally bipolar nature.
- Jed White
We haven't seen anything yet... look at the numbers and study the complete history of how we got here; not just the last eight years and reality will set in... The truth is the last thing you'll hear in the media, even now, although the reality of our situation is becoming more evident everyday. People that can see clearly will see the opportunities presented and will contribute and participate in the new world economy and leadership structure. No pain - No gain...
- Mark Harai
If your still with John Bohn, I'm curious if he's the son of a John Bohn who lived in Guam years ago and was a prominent real estate mogul here.
- William Ymesei
from IM
Jed - I'm with you 100%. Foursquare against negativity! Mark - My motto is, "No pain, no pain."
- Mitch Wagner
Seriously, I do think this crisis gives us an opportunity to build a stronger, saner economy. Too much of the economy was built on consumer goods that are, basically luxuries. If your car is five years old and still runs well and comfortably, you just don't need a new one, and won't for many years -- and yet our economy was built on convincing you that you need a new car every 2 yrs. But I fear that getting to that saner point will be horrible.
- Mitch Wagner
you meet so many killer people throughout the day
- andy brudtkuhl
Looking forward to that interview.
- Tom Landini
I think it's short-sighted to say bankers and wall street permanently harmed capitalism. They had a part to play but the greater problem is that the ponzi-scheme of credit (we're only 30 years in to mass credit card usage) and climate of over-consumption. Remember, we recently had a *negative* savings rate. [cont]
- AJ Kohn
[cont] Couple this 'live beyond our means' philosophy with the manipulation of economic benchmarks and you're able to put rose tinted glasses on the situation for decades. Nearly every President changed the way we track GDP, Unemployment and Inflation to make it look better than it is. (Try ShadowStats to get the real picture, it will not make you happy.) [cont]
- AJ Kohn
[cont] Finally, and I'll take flak for this, the post-Reagan income tax system encourages greed. That is different from encouraging success. So, a system of free credit and splurge culture, meets statistical gerrymandering, meets carpetbagger Gordon Gecko greed and you wind up where we are now. Any stimulus is running into a gale force headwind IMO.
- AJ Kohn
I sort of agree w/ Huffington when she suggested we keep a panel of those who DID forsee this meltdown long before it happened as a sort of Minority Report.
- Phillip
Huh? You think CNBC is depressing? The talking heads are always happy and cheerful whatever the news is. For real depressing reporting check out http://financialsense.com/
- Aviv
They main concern for me right now is, not being in debt, keeping it that way, plus also protecting what savings I have against any hyperinflation that may be on the horizon.
- Dean Clark
@Scobleizer apparently Latitude can't handle Altitude. Still shows you at SFO. ;-) Not too surprising, we're using cell towers, not GPS, right? Oh, and ++AlexScoble, as is so often the case. ;-)
- michael silverton
Because Reaganomics were so...successful? Of COURSE he's depressing...his theory didn't work.
- Karoli
That reminds me of a time in the recession of 1981 when 364 economists jointly took out a full page ad criticising Mrs Thatcher's economic policies. A reporter asked her "can you name TWO economists who support you?" She said "Yes, xxx and yyy" [her two main economics advisors at the time]. She later said privately: "I'm glad they didn't ask for three!"
- Andrew Denny
The vast complexity of the issues we face make the future completely unpredictable. No one really knows what's going to happen - and even worse, what will fix it. Consumer confidence / spending is very difficult to predict, if not impossible when looking a timeframes of more than a few months. There's no such thing as the "perfect" solution, so Obama is doing the right thing by pushing SOMETHING. Action, no matter what the plan, is actually more important than the substance.
- Vince DeGeorge
Reagan! That's where the problem started. "Trickle down," until the whole thing collapses from being top-heavy!
- Phil Boiarski
The system may be broken right now, as soon as we allow citizens to start spending more of what they earn the system will start to repair itself, that's if government will stop regulating what we can sell and how we sell it. One of the biggest problems is their is no unity in government right now. I think George Washington said it best in his final speech before leaving office the Unity...
more...
- Russ Jackson
He also said, "Avoid foreign entanglements!"
- Phil Boiarski
I guess I'll be depressed after hearing this interview, but I rather have the cold hard truth than live in fantasy land.
- darnell
from BuddyFeed
People - see http://www.storyofstuff.com
- Victor Panlilio
Also see history of American education http://tinyurl.com/kc4n9
- Victor Panlilio
i'm telling you. we're all doomed! doomed i say!
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
YouTube lesson on inflation http://tinyurl.com/3zvcgp
- Victor Panlilio
JFK said "Together we will save the planet, or together we will perish in its flames." Some students recently spoke by homemade radio with a mission specialist on the ISS, who said she saw one earth, no divisions. Tell that to all of us down here who act so selfishly. The kids at http://www.gen-we.org know what's at stake (watch the video). They want to end the perception that the US is a greedy and arrogant nation. In this hyper-connected world, the only way to do that is to STOP being arrogant and greedy.
- Victor Panlilio
@victor one thing I have maintained for years is that anyone that fights over land or false perceptions of race/religion/etc need to be taken up into space and forced to look down upon our home. Then they'll realise just how small we really are and how these petty excuses to be shitty towards each other are entirely pointless. Whenever prompted to enter race I always answer "human".
- alphaxion
heavy.
- Oldengrey (Jay)
@alphaxion Watch/listen to Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" http://tinyurl.com/23ch37
- Victor Panlilio
@alphaxion Paraphrasing Alan Watts: "One of the most persistent delusions in the West is that we are all isolated egos walking around in bags of skin."
- Victor Panlilio
@alphaxion Watch "Stroke of Insight" http://tinyurl.com/3l9h9y
- Victor Panlilio
So did u post the interview, Robert???
- Roberto Bonini
Here's a little antidote. Solvesall! http://tinyurl.com/btgfol
- Phil Boiarski
Roberto: turned out we didn't do one last night. The plane was too loud and it just wasn't good for an interview. We'll get together back in his office and do one. He is very interested in friendfeed now, too, and read all your questions. Said the one about the Berlin Wall was very astute.
- Robert Scoble
Talking to this guy sounds like a waste of time. Might as well talk to Lindsay Graham.
- Kathleen Mazzocco
Thanks Robert. Look forward to that. I'll think of a question or two to post in the mean time
- Roberto Bonini
So .... what did he say ???
- Tom Parish
Yes - at least a blog post or something to summarize - dying to hear.
- James Hull
Anxious to hear more
- Chance Garrity
Come on Robert!
- Charlie Ramirez
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