I finally met Markos Zuniga in person. A very impressive guy with a lot to say.
And here it is:
Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.: One of the side benefits of living in Berkeley, other than the fact that crazy leftists are a lot less creepy than crazy rightists, is having Cal Berkeley handy for intellectual symposiums and the like. And while I usually blow off those intellectual events for more, um, nourishing fare (i.e. Cubs and A's baseball), I did venture to campus to see a debate on outsourcing. The free trade side included Brad DeLong, the blogger economist who gives Paul Krugman all his talking points and a former official in Clinton's treasury department. The other side included Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary.
Nothing was resolved, of course. Outsourcing is one of those issues that will still be debated 100 years into the future. But we did learn that Reich is still bitter that DeLong's Treasury Department (led by Rubin) got lots of love from Clinton while his department was but an inconvenient afterthought. No one gives labor any love anymore. And Reich is really, really funny. Standup comedy-level funny. But this was cool for me since Brad is one of my blogging heroes. And though we live and work mere miles apart, we hadn't met despite two years of sporadic correspondence. So we took a picture.... I was like, "cool! I'm hanging out with Brad DeLong." But as you can see, Brad, on the other hand, was thinking:
Since the end of the Second World War, governments in most industrialized countries most of the time have felt an obligation to use the tools of monetary and fiscal policy to mitigate recessions and avoid depressions without allowing inflation to reach unacceptable levels. The textbook view has been that the macroeconomic objectives of output stabilization and inflation control are essentially independent of the objective of rapid long run growth. As the textbooks tell the story, cyclical fluctuations of an economy around its potential or full employment level of output depend on aggregate demand and its determinants. Long run growth depends on supply factors such as the accumulation of physical and human capital and technological progress. It is now generally accepted that while inflationary policies can impact levels of output in the short run, they cannot raise and run the risk of reducing long run levels of output.
Ahhh, to be in the presence of intellectual giants...
What I was actually thinking was that it was too bad that Robert Reich wasn't around. Reich traces the failure of the Clinton administration to be that much more than what I call "Eisenhower light" to the absence of any grassroots-based social movement (aside from Rush Limbaugh's zombies) in the U.S. in the mid-1990s, and believes that the future of liberal politics is bright only if such a left-of-center grassroots movement-pressure group develops. So I wanted to say, "Bob, meet Markos. Markos, meet Bob."
Posted by DeLong at April 23, 2004 08:34 AM | TrackBack | | Other weblogs commenting on this postWhat, that's it? A gossip columnist, you ain't.
Posted by: ogged on April 21, 2004 03:03 PMWorst meeting description ever.
Posted by: asdf on April 21, 2004 03:08 PMIs Greg Mankiw a very impressive guy with a lot to say? What about his tie?
Or maybe you've never met him.
Posted by: CSTAR on April 21, 2004 03:44 PMHe didn't have a tie.
Posted by: Brad DeLong on April 21, 2004 03:54 PMKos has more to say than 100 tacituses
Posted by: marky on April 21, 2004 04:13 PMDetails! That or something ever so completely less vague.
Posted by: Andrew Cholakian on April 21, 2004 04:20 PMY'know, this could almost be thought of as a veiled criticism:
1. He is on the same side as you, so you are sympathetic to him, and he has lots of fans.
2. You don't like him, but don't want it known.
What to do? Be as vague as possible in your compliments.
a. "He's am impressive guy" - code for "boy, he's HUGE!!"
b. "With a lot to say" - code for "he won't shut his trap, the annoying yutz"..
Just sayin!
Posted by: JC on April 21, 2004 04:29 PMNo, no, no. The point of the post is that I'm in the same little city as him at least five days a week, that I've been to his website perhaps 300 times in my life, and that I've only now actually met him. It's a point about meatspace...
Posted by: Brad DeLong on April 21, 2004 04:32 PMOkay, okay, just having fun with your post.
I actually didn't "grok" the meatspace point - I do know though.
Very...
Clever...
Hmmm....
:)
Posted by: JC on April 21, 2004 04:39 PMYou met him, did you? Well, good for you.
I met a Miss Swimsuit Venezuela candidate a couple of years ago. That trumps your Markos Zuniga any day.
Posted by: Harry Hutton on April 21, 2004 06:51 PMI don't know why, but I always thought Kos was a Chicago guy. In any event, he has the best political site in the US (better comments than on Atrios. He's making a great contribution. He ought to be from Chicago.
Posted by: Knut Wicksell on April 21, 2004 06:56 PMCould we call this something else? MEATSPACE reminds me of the horrible mixers I used to go to in the graduate school between Central and Porter squares.
Posted by: CSTAR on April 21, 2004 07:36 PMI haven't met Kos. Or DeLong. And that's one of the great things about blogs: soccer field for the bicameral mind, aging body left at home.
Posted by: Bean on April 21, 2004 08:02 PMWell, Kos had more to say about it than you did, that's for sure ;)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/4/22/13115/4614
Posted by: cyclopatra on April 21, 2004 10:42 PMHey, Kos at least posted a picture of the meeting on his blog. ;)
Posted by: sgere on April 22, 2004 07:40 AMA true economist's description of a social encounter.
Posted by: peBird on April 22, 2004 09:02 AMNice than what he says about the clown show.
Brad's one of those people who it is often not good news when he has an in depth analysis of your writing.
Posted by: Stirling Newberry on April 22, 2004 10:39 AMMy mental image of Brad, and one I would have bet a fair amount on, was that he had a beard!
Shows how subconciously conditioned even I've become to the image of "radical Berkeley professors whowanttorunyourlife." ;>
Posted by: a different chris on April 22, 2004 01:16 PMKnut, Kos does hail from Chicago, though he does apparently live somewhere on the West Coast now.
Posted by: Trickster Paean on April 23, 2004 08:13 AM
Kos is entering a new orbit of superstardom, thanks mainly to his pop-off about the murdered security contractors in Fallujah. Right wingers, always on the prowl for new lefties to demonize, have settled on him as the infidel du jour. I read him daily, but its his alumnus Billmon who really gets my attention: a great writer and unapologetic liberal.
So where is the picture? YOu can have reich photoshopped in if you want.
I agree with Walter Hall about Billmon. A fantastic site.
Kate Gilbert
Posted by: Kate Gilbert on April 23, 2004 09:20 AMBrad you look like you've put on a few pounds since your home page photo.
It was just a joke! You're not going to scrub this comment are you? ;)
Posted by: Dubblblind on April 23, 2004 09:57 AMGod, you're a lazy son a bitch Delong! And Narcissistic too!
"Here's was KOS thinks of me, but enough about me, what do YOU think me?!?
"the absence of any grassroots-based social movement (aside from Rush Limbaugh's zombies) in the U.S. in the mid-1990s,"
Abortion rights advocates? "Diversity" advocates? Health care reformers? Environmentalists? Consumerists? Strict separationists?
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan on April 23, 2004 12:56 PMNot on the issues Reich was talking about, Patrick, none of which were on the list you named.
Do you have to be a moron ALL of the time? There's nothing at stake here for you. You're just compulsive, like a dog biting itself where he hurts. Jesus.
Posted by: Zizka on April 23, 2004 05:50 PMI think Reich was referring to this kind of thing: http://www.mediatransparency.org/stories/apparat.html. This is a good article describing well-funded "movement conservatism" organizations that attacked Clinton from day one, and their current activities supporting Bush's election campaign.
We need to develop liberal advocacy organizations with a marketing/communications orientation to reach the general public and promote progressive ideals. Take a look at how the Heritage Foundation operates, and the hundreds of other organizations funded by the likes of Scaife. Start here: http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/information.html. Then here: http://www.commonwealinstitute.org/reports/tort/Section1.html#t2.
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