Buh-wah-huh?
October 18, 2007
In this clip from Hardball, CNBC’s Erin Burnett explains how China’s poisoned food and lead-paint toys keep prices low at Wal-Mart, making them the United States’ “best friend.”
Um.
Posted in What The...?!?
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October 18th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Well, I’m no Talking Head Econ Barbie, but it seems to me that poisoning your consumers is ultimately bad for the economy. If only because then there won’t be anyone left to buy your products.
October 18th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
LOL! I think what she meant was that the perception that Chinese products are dangerous is keeping prices low, but it sure sounds like she’s saying that poisoned food is good for our economy.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
You know, when I read your post, I assumed she was being satirical or something, but no, she really thinks “leaving well enough alone” with China is the way to go, poisoned food and lead paint or no. Classy.
October 19th, 2007 at 1:05 am
I am confused about how China is the United States’ best friend, because isn’t Wal-Mart the United States’ worst enemy?
October 19th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Diesel, I think she’s saying that if we do anything (ie, regulate or force regulation) to remove the perception that Chinese products are dangerous, then prices will rise and our mortgages will suffer.
I’m just amazed that we’ve come so far from the anti-communist pro-liberty 80s that people are arguing we have to rely on a communist, oppressive authoritarian regime to keep our economy afloat.
She is cute, though, Chrissy, and that makes her argument persuasive.
Fred, it’s getting damn hard to satirize some of these people. To be fair, if we didn’t have so many hours of talking-head spots to fill, she would probably have found a more elegant way to phrase this.
And Ashley, I’m with Robert Reich on this one I think — corporations aren’t moral or immoral, they’re pieces of paper. And we need to treat them as such.
October 19th, 2007 at 9:41 am
If she was saying we do rely on a communist, oppressive authoritarian regime (that sometimes produces poisonous food and deadly toys, no less) and that most Americans probably don’t want to take a closer look at that arrangement…well, okay, she’d have a point there.
But what she seems to be saying is that we shouldn’t be taking a closer look at that arrangement, because then the whole house of cards would come tumbling down — and, hey, isn’t the occasional batch of dead dogs, sick kids, or oppressed people worth low, low prices at Wal-Mart?
Basically, what I’m saying is: she’s right. And that’s what makes her so very, very wrong.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:59 am
[...] found lead and date-rape drugs in children’s toys, thanks to failing regulatory [...]