Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.
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Remember a few years back when Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh warned that subprime mortgages would lead to big trouble? Remember when Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham blew the whistle on mortgage derivatives and default swaps, forecasting a worldwide monetary crisis?
If you remember all this, you better schedule a visit with your analyst. There were no such predictions. The chattering class totally slept through the run-up to the economic story of the half century.
What in the name of P.T. Barnum have they been up to?
Well, suppose a town council in a little burg in Somestate, USA, passed an ordinance that says you can’t smoke in your house if you live 10 feet from another house.
There would be a three-hour show!
Of course the next morning the town fathers in the little burg wake up sober and rescind the ordinance. No further mileage on this one, on to the next one ...
Our republic is about to dissolve. A pox is called down on the “nanny state.” (In talk radio even nanny-staters get to rail against the nanny state — it’s complicated.)
You gotta love the chatterati, though.
After ignoring the buildup to the biggest financial meltdown in two generations, they’re ready and willing to take on the solution to the crisis. They’re 100 percent sure about what to do and what not to do to get things back in order.
You gotta love ’em.
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