The labours of Hercules? Minor, compared with those of Economist Dean Baker

Good ole Herc never had it so good, even cleaning those challenging Augean stables while suffering the desperate urgency of a long shower afterwards, which brings us to Dean Baker.

On 30Jan15, excellent economist though he is, Dean Baker took a shot at meteorology – bad idea, that storm turned out to be a Category 5 Hurricane.

At CEPR of which he is co-director, he had posted a forecast along with his acerbic economic analysis, The BS Stsorm is Coming on Trade Deals.

But before getting there, a cleansing, musical question, which, while refreshing, still fails to capture the extent of the bad forecast, Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

Well, rain this thing is not, thick and unrelenting in its intensity. And the stench.Which brings us back to Baker, and an excerpt from that forecast of his,

FIFA’s challenges, the rich US, and those poor countries

As the US Department of Justice extends its reach as the global enforcer of law, order and justice, the world is not at a loss for expertise and confident solutions that emanate from even US experts who are but passingly familiar with the sport of football.

To make the obvious blatantly obvious: when the US media, almost on cue, can give blanket coverage in a feeding frenzy of demonisation and vilification to a sport it routinely ignores, one does not have to be an expert in reading tea leaves, especially when its Senator McCain launches his own broadside. Something is rotten in the state of, where?

Now, then, to launch into a marine metaphor. A very good swimmer in a pool, indoor or outdoor, can often be at sea in the sea, and less so against an average sea swimmer in the sea. Knowing and understanding one’s environment does make a difference.

For example, a statistician with expertise on the politics or sports in one country can fare well elsewhere – with the requisite knowledge and insights in that new environment. Otherwise, a fool’s errand becomes apparent, and unbecoming. One dares hope that such an ill-considered foray is not born of that sense of exceptionalism.

Yes, ‘Free Trade’ and Free Trade – US ‘Journalism’ and Journalism

Refreshing.

We have an example of journalism as against ‘journalism’. US economist Dean Baker, more so than others, has been inveighing mightily and continually against the problematic reporting of the ‘journalism’ of the likes of WaPo and NYT, now on issues of ‘free trade’, the TTIP and TPP. Baker reads and responds to such so that others will not have to suffer the indignity or agony. Yet in all this we are pointed to a surprise, and it comes from one of the MSM blogs.

As we will see, Huffington Post, often bulletin board to the corporate Democratic party, is gifted with good journalists – if one has the patience to rummage through the clutter. On the ‘Fast Track’ and TPP and TTIP, its Zach Carter serves as an exemplar on how journalism should be done, something rare in the corporate MSM.

No sooner had Senator Warren highlighted the obvious that even the modestly curious already know, than the US President would plunge deeper into it, and aggressively undermine further his trustworthiness, Obama Fires Back At Elizabeth Warren And Trade Critics, Escalating Democratic Feud.

‘Free Trade’, Lies and Looting – Prof Black Shineth the Light on Evil

The Economic Sermon of the Day.

But before we get there. The problem of inexperience and narcissism is that the latter trait too often prevails on the former that it is indeed experience, even wisdom. Case in point is the failure to understand on the part of the incautious and inexperienced that the US Senator Warren never has been ‘packaged’ – her accomplishments are there for all to see and understand. And there ought to be that likelihood that her similarly maligned colleague, Senator Sherrod Brown, may actually know something about trade and ‘free trade’? Then, again, there is something about ‘fools rush in’…

Which brings us to the Economic Sermon of the Day from Professor William K Black. Black is also known for the investigation and securing of the criminal prosecution of very many involved in the infamous Savings & Loan debacle in the US. And the thing is, the crimes of that era were not nearly as egregious as those of the recent ‘Great Financial Crash’, where not one malefactor has been charged, far more convicted – that political inoculation, immunisation in the US that comes through corporate campaign contributions and other lavish perquisites.