So I'm at the bar, standing there, between these two guys. The TV is on and it's the news and they're talking about Obama's big bank rescue plan. Hell, I'm not a brainiac; I can't figure this shit out, so I turn to the older gentleman on my left and say, "Hey pal, what do you think of this plan?"
And he says, "Quite frankly, this amounts to robbery of the American people. I don't think it's going to work because I think there'll be a lot of anger about putting the losses so much on the shoulder of the American taxpayer."
"Aw, what do you know?" I ask. "Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Joseph Stiglitz. I won the Nobel Prize in Economics."
I turn to the other guy, the guy on my right. "What do you think, man?" I ask him.
And he says, "This is more than disappointing. In fact, it fills me with a sense of despair." He paused for a moment, looking into his beer. "But the real problem with this plan is that it won’t work. Yes, troubled assets may be somewhat undervalued. But the fact is that financial executives literally bet their banks on the belief that there was no housing bubble, and the related belief that unprecedented levels of household debt were no problem. They lost that bet. And no amount of financial hocus-pocus — for that is what the Geithner plan amounts to — will change that fact."
"And just who are you?" I ask again.
"Why, I'm Paul Krugman - of the New York Times. I also won the Nobel Prize in Economics."
"Jeez.," I said, "it seems to me that the president would have at least consulted you guys on all this mess...?"
Silence.
We looked at the TV together. Obama. Geithner. Bernanke. Summers. "How many Nobel Prizes do those guys have?" I asked.
Nothing.
In the face of awkward silence, I raised my glass to the TV and said "To hope."
