John come on now. You are seeing the collapse of our markets after 30 years of deregulatory policies that didn't happen the prior 40 years while those regulations were in place.

I'm comparing apples to apples. You want to bring in communist Russia to tell me about how apples work better then watermelons.

Come on we're all adults here … lets act like it.

Except that the energy market in CA was NOT deregulated.

Until you get that, your intellectual honesty is in grave doubt.

You mean like Russia or China? hmmmmm…. just not seeing the Utopia.

Posted by: Methinks

Talk about comedy in the morning… mentioning hedge funds and "managing risk" in the same sentence…NOW THAT's FUNNY.. what a bunch of billion dollar used car salemen.

Martin I suggest you listen to the Michael Greenberger testimony I linked to and listen to this as well.

The second is by Kieth Olbermann but listen to the thing and criticize the points and facts stated not the commentator.

Some how we have to shut don the revolving door that rotates regulators, lobbyist, politicians and CEO's to run our corporatist country.

But the big point is that when good legislation and regulation is in place IT WORKS. The Enrons of the world are not the exception but the rule. And a corporations CEO has by duty to pursue every aspect of profit and that includes lobbying congress for favors and rules changes.

Absolutely amazing the the CFTC chair deregulated the energy market then took a job with Enron. This is where the outrage in over our system should be and the answer is not to simply take power away from the government and to deregulate the system. Enron, the housing bubble and the gas speculation are the prices of deregulation. The answer involves far more oversite over politicians as well as over lobbyist, regulators and CEO's.

Until then you all can pretend the market is getting along in spite of regulation when in fact it has gotten along because of good regulation and is now collapsed with out it. The deregulatory trends and laws that changed over the last 30 years are clear as the results we now see splattered all before… hey has Lehman folded yet… or did the government fill it's beggar tin cup yet? Hopefully Richard Fuld has got him some good blind beggar sunglasses. I haven't checked the news to see the latest deregulatory shoe drop.

God, I love comedy in the morning!

Interestingly tons of money flowed OUT of the markets shortly after the Senate Commerce Committee met to pass reform.

Obviously, not a spurious correlation at all. The proof of cause and effect is the correlation itself. I think I now understand why hedge funds got there asses kicked when volatility spiked – they all hired Muirdiots to manage risk.

"The public news media is a great example of an area where the public system is more efficient then the private one."

If you refer to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting it isn't, wasn't, and has never been particularly efficient (interesting measures for that in news broadcasting by the way). The statement indicates that Mr. Muirgeo knows very little about the news media industry.

The original point of the post– about the press digging into personal dirt on political candidates vs. actual office holders– is a question of… wait for it… professional media ethics.

It's a shame the topic strayed so far afield.

Interestingly tons of money flowed OUT of the markets shortly after the Senate Commerce Committee met to pass reform.

Interestingly, tons of money flowed OUT of the oil market shortly after the Bush administration stopped violently rattling its worn out sabers at Iran and started talking to them instead. Were speculators responsible? Sure they were. Should the price of oil rise specuatively when madly megalomanical statesmen threaten critical oil supplies? Of course, it should.

Has Congress actually enacted any reforms? I doubt it. Can Congress actually do anything to prevent speculative trading of oil futures in London markets? No. Since these speculators are not subject to Congress, do they much care about the grandiose speeches of U.S. politicians in an election year? No.

The public news media is a great example of an area where the public system is more effecient then the private one.

NPR is painfully politically correct (vacuously ass kissing). I listened yesterday to yet another story on "race" only long enough to switch it off. Its "journalists" hate their jobs so much that they try to become game show hosts instead.

This web site and thousands like it are the private media now, and it'll deliver some sort of revolution yet.

The typical words of all would be dictators.

"At least if you listen to NPR you'd understand how regularly your being ripped off by the "free market"."

We're not being ripped off by the free market. It is your favored fascist market that has allowed no alternative to gas guzzling autos and cities buried in multilane concrete. Your fascist market that directs 30 to 40 percent of people's earnings to things they didn't ask for and don't want. Your fascist market that stifles creativity and innovation in healthcare, education, finance, and yes, the media.

"The public news media is a great example of an area where the public system is more effecient then the private one."

How?

Please be specific in your explanation.

NPR makes plenty of errors. Most recent is this the initial claim that
Estonia broke free of communism in 1991.

Estonia was independent from 1920 to 1940.

NPR has botched the name of the Russian president as well as getting the year wrong when referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

NPR makes errors too…

Justs can talk and can be owned [assuming you forgot the word "is" between the words "just" and "talking"]? Nonsense! I hear that pots can talk, though…they chat it up with kettles quite frequently.

>>Tabloid journalism is the results of "free-market corporate journalism". The fact that this stuff is what sells best in such a system is just one clue to the potential failures of markets.<<

Muirgeo, you are one of the buyers here. You can claim that you get all your news from NPR and public television but in the end, you repeat most of the same garbage that corporate/tabloid journalism produces. You, doctor, are one of the very people that you earlier criticized for some sort of failure in the market. Physician heal thyself!

Thank you very much Senate Commerce Committee. You've saved Americans ( even the Libertopians) billions of dollars on gas with out drilling a single new well. Now that's good governance.

Michael Greenberger former CFTC Chairman's testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee.

Of course the current CFTC boards study says the dat is too opaque to make any conclusions on.

Unbelievable.
Posted by: Marcus

If the government is funding dissent against itself that truly is a great thing. That's called a check and balance system. When it funds propaganda that's called pushing conformity… not good. A true democracy should be rife with dissent and politicians kept on their toes and regularly replaced from their service if the slightest bit inept or corrupt.

Of course we've seen the right wing politicians and their cronies attempt to take over the board of NPR.

Yes, but you cannot deny that the infobabes on FNC are Aych Oh Tee HOT and that is what counts. More than grammar, Mr. Edumacated.

Too bad we can't bottle all that unbounded arrogance the dear dr. spews out. Might be able to turn it gas and fill up our SUV's. You gonna defend this study on NPR listeners as thoroughly as the Picketty/Saenz study Russ Roberts challenged you to defend a few weeks ago? Oh that's right we're still waiting for that dissertation.