A post by Matt Taibbi prompts me to think about why I and so many others call themselves liberals. The post deals with Wall Street oligarchs (in this case, Lloyd Blankfein), who are prominent advocates of gay rights, or others who, say, via Emily’s List, etc. are adamantly opposed to even the smallest changes to [...]
Archive for the ‘Free Market Apologists’ Category
What is Liberalism for?
Posted in Free Market Apologists, ideas, politics, Uncategorized, tagged Glenn Greenwald, liberalism, Matt Taibbi, Occupy movement, postmodernism on February 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Weakness of our Strength (Which is Ultimately a Weakness): Scott Boras Edition
Posted in culture, Free Market Apologists, tagged baseball, Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, Scott Boras on February 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Reading up on free-agent signings in preparation for the upcoming baseball season, I’m struck by how poorly the über-successful super-agent Scott Boras played his hands the past few months. He’s managed to put some of his older players in terrible contract situations (Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, and others), losing them millions of dollars because he [...]
Branding Life redux
Posted in culture, Free Market Apologists, tagged capitalism, Dogs, language, postmodernism on January 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As many of you know, I’m fascinated by the ways in which the language of capitalism– and a kind of provisional contractual mobility associated with capitalism– have become ubiquitous in the language of postmodern culture. It’s become increasingly difficult to talk outside the market, even to name experiences that were long thought to be sanctuaries [...]
Prosperity and Optimism
Posted in Free Market Apologists, politics, tagged economy, income, inequality on April 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Two headlines are worth a look for readers of this blog. First, one article reports that income inequality in America is accelerating: average incomes for people in the bottom fifth of the American income distribution have dropped 2.5% in the last eight years, whereas incomes in the top fifth have risen over 9%. Middle class [...]
MacIntyre and Political Responsibility
Posted in Free Market Apologists, ideas, politics, tagged American history, Augustine, MacIntyre, McCain, Obama, Weber on March 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Rod Dreher has linked to Alisdair MacIntyre’s comment just before the 2004 election defending his decision to vote for neither Presidential candidate. It generated little comment at the time, but there is the start of something important in his statement. As befits a moral philosopher, MacIntyre sees with perfect lucidity that the current American political [...]
Freakapologists
Posted in Europe, Free Market Apologists, politics, tagged Europe, Free Market Apologists, New York on March 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Over the last several days, sharp writers like Reihan Salam, Megan McArdle and others have raised their voices to denounce those foolish New Yorkers who admit to experiencing a certain schadenfreude at the parlous state of Wall Street fortunes, openly rooting for the possibility that New York will become more livable and affordable once this [...]
