A NEW KIND OF PROSPERITY THERE is one of those Sunday TV morning news talk shows on ABC. The hostess is some woman with a first name of Christiana. She seems to try to do a good job. Maybe this is why she was recently fired. Perhaps in an effort to hide the fact that she is a lame duck, the normal format of the show was changed. Instead there was a “debate” between official Liberal and official Conservative politicians and pundits.
On the Liberal side was Barney Frank. Frank is an interesting member of the House of Representatives. One of his jobs was to oversee the Federal housing agencies. These agencies were key in causing the housing market collapse, and the current recession. Frank also is an open homo. In fact, he is more than open. A “friend” of his ran a homosexual brothel out of his his house in Washington. Frank claimed that he did not notice what was going on. Considering how he managed his official duties, maybe this is possible. Frank has a superior ability in expression and polemics. He is a verbal bully, with effective syntax and powerful delivery. He talks over, and through, and during, and past anyone with whom he disagrees. He frequently accuses his questioners of lying. Few can handle him. He has recently announced his decision not to run for reelection. He shall pursue other men… I mean interests.
The issues on the show, quite naturally, were the current president’s current policies. Frank was defending the bail outs (the ones sponsored by Democrats). The Conservatives were attacking the same ones, while defending the ones sponsored by Bush. Frank had an interesting comment on General Motors. There seems to be some conflicting reports regarding the company. Maybe it is is doing well, and maybe not. However, Frank declared it to be “thriving.” This is the interesting part.
I often argue that to understand any economics a person needs a firm grounding in micro economics. This means examining the small unit, the company, the consumer, etc, and NOT the overall national (or international) economy. However, Frank seems to me to have established a new standard, namely a mini-micro standard. In a certain sense, GM is thriving. It used to sell at least eight separate lines of vehicles. Four of those have been discontinued. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of dealerships have been closed. Plants have been shut down. So, in a sense, what is left is doing well.
Consider it in this way. A store is open 8 hours a day and sells $8,000 worth of goods. Then it changes its hours. It is open 1 hour a day, and brings in only $2,000. In a very micro sense, it is now bringing in twice as much money (per hour). However, it is actually bringing in 75% less than before. The new GM is “streamlined.” Reason on this analogy. A man develops a terrible skin disease that causes him to lose both his legs and one arm. With the other arm he develops a massively strong bicep. Frank would say that the man is “strong in all of his limbs.” He is, sort of. All we have to do is to use a Frank focus on the subject. We merely ignore all the diseased, or missing, parts, and declare the rest to be exceptionally wonderful. I bring up this because you should expect to see more examples of this kind of tiny weensy prosperity as the Bambam reelection campaign moves forward.
New plays by Oscar Wilde are available on Amazon and Lulu.com (Who’s Afraid of a Long Day’s Journey into the Drawing Room?).
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