James Baldwin
The Outdoor Fire Pit Next Time
Since the end of 2008 people have viewed economists with a greater degree of popularity. {Nouriel Roubini, Paul Krugman, Brad DeLong, Dean Baker, Joe Stiglitz, William Black – they used to live in a much less trafficked world and if they were celebrities, they were probably only celebrities to other economists and a narrow sliver of the public.} Do not assume that these people were stopped in a retail store selling fire pits.
But as the Great Recession has influenced more people directly, more people have been inspired to dig around for answers as to what in the world just happened, and what may happen next. The curious ones have dug around for more on this branch of news and society: economics.
Ben Bernanke, who is the newly reappointed chairman of the Fed, has some similarities to Krugman. Both are experts on the Great Depression of the 1930s. In hard times people return to the basic necessities. In Depression times, crowds of people would gather around a flaming oil drum – basically a firepit – to warm themselves.
It is likely that the policies of economists like Krugman and Bernanke were greatly influenced by their observations of poverty. Naturally, economists vary widely on their opinions. It’s hard to determine what is scarier – adoption of the TARP federal relief plan (Troubled Asset Relief Program), or not passing it! Economists try to use all their learning to identify bad trends and keep them from doing further harm to people.
If you are a lucky homeowner with a California Outdoor Concepts or Monterra fire pit, do not forget the plight of those who have been laid off. As James Baldwin said, it could be the fire pit next time.
James Baldwin: the Price of the Ticket
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 6:21 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.