Bernard Madoff, Paul Krugman and Unexpected Winter Weather
The Securities and Exchange Commission investigates its own actions leading up to the discovery of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scam.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman accuses advocates of limited government of having racist intentions.
Levels of global sea ice for the end of 2008 match those observed in 1979, confounding global warming predictions.
More headlines: listen to the LibertyWeek podcast.
1. BUSINESS
The Securities and Exchange Commission investigates its own actions leading up to the discovery of Bernard Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scam.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on how the SEC lost its focus:
“The SEC was too busy hounding unregistered hedge funds, short-sellers, and entrepreneurial companies for trivial minutiae from Sarbanes-Oxley and other mandates to notice the fraud right in front of them. The regulators didn’t just ‘drop the ball,’ as President-Elect Barack Obama recently asserted. They lost focus on where the most important ‘ball’ was.”
2. POLITICS
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman accuses advocates of limited government of having racist intentions.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist counters Krugman’s argument:
“…the Republican Party and Lee Atwater have as much to do with small government as Twinkies have to do with a balanced diet. Mr. Krugman is a smarter than this. Surely he doesn’t think that the G.O.P. and the long tradition of thinkers who believe in limited government power are one in the same. No, Mr. Krugman knows better and is hoping that smearing the philosophy of limited government with accusations of racism will save him the work of presenting real, honest arguments against a very powerful set of ideas.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Levels of global sea ice for the end of 2008 match those observed in 1979, confounding global warming predictions.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Doug Bandow reacts to the news:
“I’m totally confused. The world was supposed to be ending, and one alleged sign was the disappearance of sea ice. But the ice is back. Where’s all that warming? (It’s chilly out – I really want to know where that warming went!) Someone had better tell Mother Earth to get with the program. Everything is supposed to be getting worse and we expect her to stop turning Al Gore into a liar!”
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