Monday, June 15, 2009

The Limits of “Expertise”

My father, Old Paco, once defined an expert as “a son of a bitch with a briefcase from out of town.” Stacy McCain takes a close look at the highly dubious Gnosis of our economic gurus, and comes away distinctly unimpressed. Also unimpressed: the Innocent Bystanders blog and tens of thousands of mom-and-pop GM bondholders.

Oh, and on the theme of comparisons that have been made between Obama and FDR, I find this Roosevelt quote to be a classic of irony: "I should like to have it said of my first administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. . . . I should like to have it said of my second administration that in it these forces met their master." In reality, of course, what the domestic “forces of selfishness and of lust for power” met in Roosevelt’s various administrations was their apotheosis.

6 comments:

Steve Burri said...

A friend always said that an 'ex' is a has been and a 'spurt' is a drip under pressure.

JeffS said...

I always look suprised when someone calls me an expert. It reduces the pain.

kc said...

Someone recently referred to me as brilliant - and they were serious. I almost choked.

It hurtsessss.....

Larry Sheldon said...

I thought it was:

"X" is an unknown quantity.
"Spurt" is a drip ....

Minicapt said...

Not 'apotheosis'; 'archetype' is a better descriptor.

Cheers

smitty1e said...

@Steve Burri: isn't that a Robert Orben line?