Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Thursday, May 6, 2010

I Want The Fire Back

Everyone says if you ignore Megan McArdle she'll just go away, but they lie, the bastards. She's just back into her squishy boring stage, repeating what everyone else says and mouthing platitudes. The only bright spot is the knowledge that Megan McArdle expected housing prices to drop enough to make buying a home affordable, but because of gross income disparity, she still can't buy a house.

She also knocks Joe Leberman's views regarding American citizenship, which is a good thing because by Liberman's standards, her fellow Atlantic blogger Jeffrey Goldberg, who was a prison guard in the Israeli military, is a traitor.

And Miss Fair-Minded of 2010 now realizes that investment bankers gamed the financial industry for their own gain, something that slipped past her free-market worshipping mind while the banks were actually pulling off their crimes and manipulations. Now that they've gotten away with their crimes, Miss Megan is willing to admit that the bankers maybe aren't the smartest people in the room and the financial industry maybe shouldn't be the basis for our economic success. It's very ex post facto generous of her, but I guess that just reveals the complexity and nuance of her ability to assess failure.

9 comments:

Lurking Canadian said...

From your third link (bold is mine):
Employment is at all-time lows, but that's good news--it means most of us aren't tightening bolts or staring at the back end of a mule ten hours a day.

Sometimes, you just want to sit back and let the entitlement wash over you, but then the nausea makes you click away. Are you sure she's human? I mean, really?

Also, what is an "all-cash" offer on a home? It sounds like no mortgage, but it also sounds like she's muttering darkly that these scoundrels who bought her house did it with borrowed money, so I don't know what she means.

Anonymous said...

I doubt that Sen Lieberman would see little Jeffrey as a traitor as he is unaware that the U.S. and Israel are two separate nations whose only imperfection is that the big one is sometimes insufficiently deferential to the smaller.

Susan of Texas said...

What a moronic thing to say. She can't even bother to sound rational when she's lying. And I imagine Suderman might disagree about being employed.

Regarding the house, I think she's trying to make a larger point about the economy but just failing miserably. Once again, the free market slaps McArdle upside the head and she thinks it's a caress.

Susan of Texas said...

Touche, anon.

Downpuppy said...

At the end of a really useless, unreasearched post about college graduates, Megan fairly clearly states that the financial industry is overpaid, untalented, leeches performing very little useful function.

Which says somebody just gave up on getting a job with Goldman.

And also turns the knob on the Evil or Stupid? question a long ways towards the E.

The gratuitous nastiness she threw in along the way makes it time to start the revolution.

freq flag said...

I guess that just reveals the complexity and nuance of her ability to assess failure.

Yes, isn't it queer the response that Little Miss Failure Analysis has had regarding the financial meltdown in general and the case against GS in particular? No facts, no data, no analysis, no timeline, no recitation of the charges, no listing of major players and their behaviors...oh no, none of that tedious nonsense (not to mention it'd be like *work*).

Instead, she gooses her juicy sinecure one more time to squeeze out yet another of her predictable, adolescent critiques--rushing to the defense of poor defenseless Goldman Sachs who's had to undergo an overpoliticized "show trial" at the hands of the notoriously governmental SEC (cf. Bankgirl To The Rescue).

Also, what is an "all-cash" offer on a home?

Generally speaking, "no mortgage" is correct--the essential factor is that the buyer doesn't go through conventional mortgage financing to meet the seller's price. As far the seller is concerned, it is a cash transaction, though where/how the buyer came up with the cash can occur a variety of ways (equity, savings, an investment coming due, selling off something of value, a no-interest loan from relatives, an inheritance, etc.).

Poor MeMac...another painful lesson delivered by Big Bad Reality, which she's spent most of her life insisting doesn't/shouldn't apply to her.

NutellaonToast said...

"by Liberman's standards, her fellow Atlantic blogger Jeffrey Goldberg, who was a prison guard in the Israeli military, is a traitor."

I believe that is not the case, as Lieberman qualified his stance by stating you must join an army engaged in conflict with the US.

I don't know about DC, but in many places wealthy investors are convinced the market has bottomed and so are gobbling up houses for the bounce back. They pay all cash which is desirable for the reasons mentioned above. That's the explanation I've heard, at least.

Susan of Texas said...

I don't know why they're so sure we've hit bottom--look at yesterday. But for some people it's not a big consideration, I guess. Buy cheap and wait to sell high. It might take a decade, but they can afford it.

NutellaonToast said...

I dunno why, either. It's possible as things have plunged a shit ton, but who knows.