We thought that our wrap-up of the reaction to Ben Stein’s piece might finally put our day-long obsession with his Goldman Conspiracy Theory Essay to rest. But then Stein himself decided to lash out against one of his opponents.
The news comes from our friends at New York magazine’s Daily Intel, who actually got a hold of Stein and asked him about the reaction.
“It is hardly to be expected that I could question an institution as powerful as Goldman Sachs and not get some response,” Stein told Daily Intel. “As to Paul Krugman, I don’t like to deal with people so full of hate. His recent piece on [Milton] Friedman [in the New York Review of Books] was so thoroughly debunked by Anna Schwartz that I would well imagine he’s not happy.”
Of course, this is a slimy—if tactically smart—move. No doubt Stein is particularly hurt that another New York Times writer with economic credentials bashed his essay. (Isn’t there some policy that says they aren’t supposed to openly mock each other? We’d always assumed that there must be. How else do you explain the lack of open mockery of Maureen Dowd in the pages of the Times?) But going after Krugman is slimy-smart because a lot of Stein’s detractors are also not the biggest fans of the Krug. It even makes us uncomfortable to find ourselves agreeing with him. And reminding everyone that Krugman is a Friedman-basher and, more broadly speaking, an Keynesian enemy of free-markets is rhetorical hardball.
But it’s probably a misstep for Stein to imply that his column was criticized because he questioned “an institution as powerful as Goldman Sachs.” Take a look at that long list of critics from our earlier post. Not a one of them is routinely a defender of Goldman or of institutional power in general. In fact, pretty much every single one of the critics we quotes is far better known for biting at the ankles of our financial titans. This just makes Stein looks sadly defensive.
Ben Stein Thinks Paul Krugman Probably Just Has Low Self-Esteem [Daily Intel]
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- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
Krugman, Goldman, Stein, Friedman–Why are you guys obsessed with Jews? Are you anti-semitic?
what happened to the mike’s post? i really like it, and i really like the drink.
Mike’s Hard (to find on dealbreaker)Lemonade tastes like winning a land war in asia.
Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Impervious to Gold Digging.
Bring back the Mike’s (post)!
I wish Mike’s Hard Lemonade was around when I was 12. Best intro to drinking out there!
Mike’s Hard Lemonade: The dual-purpose beverage
Great at getting 16 year-old’s drunk. Greater as a lube when you’re doing her from behind.
Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Best drink since Tab.
5:29: In case you haven’t noticed, Dealbreaker is about Wall Street and finance. No doubt if the Norwegians owned all the banks you’d read a great deal about them too.
http://www.dealbreaker.com/2007/12/how_your_sausage_gets_made_1.php
Mike’s Hard Lemonade….the ultimate golden shower.
Note to dealbreaker/Carney – go back to around the time that the story broke that Goldman brokered the A-Rod/Yankee deal. Yours Truly here did so much as SPECIFICALLY SAY that Goldman should be investigated if they don’t have big losses. I have no stake in what happens to them but let’s be realistic here, when all of Wall Street goes one way, Goldman does not go the other. If you believe that you are blind blind blind and couldn’t read Ben Stein’s article if you wanted to.
Ben Stein is a publicity hound with a taste for girls younger than George Soros’s. His intellect is lighter than yogurt and just as uninformative.
And did some jerk just say that Jews own all the banks? That’ll come as a surprise to the Saudis. And the Rockefellers. And the Bushes (who ran the Nazi bank in New York around 1940, till the Justice Department closed it down under the Trading With The Enemy Act).
ben stein has a taste for young girls? prove it.
“ben stein has a taste for young girls? prove it.”
http://www.dealbreaker.com/2007/12/how_your_sausage_gets_made_1.php
don’t forget, the jews run hollywood too.
Is this a tabloid? Or a mouthpiece for the WSJ editorial board? I’d rather have real gossip than an echo chamber for Ribstein and Kirkendall.
PanSkeptic @11:12 Though no lover of the Bushes (hater would be more like it), I feel compelled to set the record straight. George H.W.’s father Prescott was a partner at Brown Bros Harriman and one of his clients was a firm with ties to the Nazi govt. Maybe IG Farben? BBH was not shut down as a result.