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This week, Robin Hood is back, and this time he’s running a Wall Street retail brokerage firm. But the whole “take from the rich, give (or more accurately, keep) for the (relatively) poor” thing is still in effect. To discuss, we’ve got WSJ columnist Gerard Baker who explains and opines on it. Then our favorite Congressional correspondent on the planet, the Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio drops by to tell us why Nancy Pelosi thinks the call is coming from within the House, why impeachment is not going to fly, and how much of Biden’s agenda will get through Congress. Also, some thoughts on Ohio Senator Rob Portman decision to hang it up, and another edition of What Are You Watching?
Music from this week’s show: Eat The Rich by Aerosmith
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Has anyone come up with a Sonic The Hedge-Hog meme yet?
Before I listen, do the people bringing down the hedge fund get attacked as some sort of monsters as per the elites line?
Asking for a Friend.
Does anyone else remember the RobinHood service advertising on Ricochet podcasts?
I sure do.
They were last with us in April of 2019.
Robin Hood stole confiscatory taxes from the crown and gave them back to taxpayers. He didn’t redistribute wealth.
I looked for a clip of Kirstie Alley as Rebecca Howe on “Cheers” saying “Has it been that long????” which she did very well. Sadly, couldn’t find one.
The conversation won’t disappoint you, Bryan. Promise.
Who is Errol Flynn and Peter Robinson?
Name the bookends of Ronald Reagan’s career.
Any mention of a possible connection to Jen Psaki, for example?
@peterrobinson You could save yourself – and the rest of us too – some time if you didn’t drag out the whole “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” every. Single. Time.
2 years or 4 years might seem even longer if you keep doing that.
Everyone knows who AOC is. Or at least, use the full name ONCE, per show.
You’re referring to questions about her brother and Citadel? No proof yet AFAIK.
I wondered if there was any mention of that in the podcast, which I hadn’t yet finished hearing.
Someone mentioned on another post/thread that Jen had recently erased references to her brother from her official (I guess) biographical information. Seems odd, at the least. “Nothing to see here” doesn’t quite work if that’s because it was erased.
I think this may be a reference to her bio on wikipedia, the edit history of which suggests that a reference to her brother had been removed. But the statement about her having a brother at Citadel was added that day by some wiki editor, so the reference to her brother “erased” isn’t the right way to characterize the matter.
Sounded more like something on the Biden Administration website somewhere, but you may be right.
I pay pretty close attention to a hedge fund guy named Mike Green @profplum99. He recently said that the big problem today is we don’t use the stock market to gather capital and sell it and use it to price businesses. That’s what it’s supposed to be for. It’s being used to fund retirement without respect to that. Activist central banking is really screwing everything up. It’s a feedback loop because everything gets underfunded because they were activist. They can’t even let the stock market fall for a normal amount like 30% without the government and society getting in big trouble.
Now having said that, we could get into a situation where many big businesses are more solvent than the government. There is just too much debt and too much fake money.
The Fed has been overprinting since 1996 or possibly 1987. The last chance to quit doing it was probably 2008. That’s how we got into this mess. It’s OK to do it for a pandemic but we have been doing way too much already.
I keep telling you guys this and I can’t be talked out of it. Every single western government did every single thing wrong in the face of automation and globalized trade. Your basic Republican thinks “tough”, “trade and automation are progress”. That is deflation. That is better living through purchasing power. So why is the Fed trying to create inflation? Because it’s the only way you can have big government, militarism, and an extractive financial system. We should have stopped with this nonsense the second the Soviet Union fell. Now we just have gigantic asset bubbles and gigantic social problems. We are going to get populism or Socialism the hard way, and for a good reason.
Rob can verify everything I just said with his friend James Grant.
There are 4 or $5 trillion worth of government pension funds and like 80% of it is underwater in a scary way. Taxes are the only real way to make it up or kick grandma to the curb.
There should be no such thing as a government actuarial system that isn’t 110% funded except for recessions. The idea is, it’s theoretically less expensive because you only have to fund the average lifespan, but we don’t even do that. And throw in the fact that you usually still pay excess wages even though people get a guaranteed pension, a guaranteed annuity.
What caused this? Modern central banking.
James, impact is a horrible verb choice because it is usually done by people too lazy to learn the difference between affect and effect. You should rewrite that bit of the ad copy.
She doesn’t have a brother. Or even a first cousin of that name. It was all conjecture based on the unusualness of her last name.
No, no. She had a brother, until House Republicans murdered him on the floor of the house!
They’re totally murdery. Just ask her. After a couple of vapid blinks, she will then tell you that this is true.
While listening to this week’s Ricochet podcast, it occurred to me that Ricochet has a real opportunity for a new podcast.
For consideration by@jon @peterrobinson @jameslileks @roblong
“The Totalitarian Podcast” hosted by people who have left a socialist/communist/oppressive country behind to come to the U.S., people like Sarah Hoyt, who posts in the evenings on Instapundit, and blogs at https://accordingtohoyt.com
The focus of the podcast would be interviewing those who grew up with first-hand experiences with totalitarian countries like the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea and former communist-dominated countries to throw light on how totalitarians think and operate, and to what extent they see a totalitarian threat in the U.S.
They could talk about the great books on totalitarianism and oppresive regimes.
I bet with the right pair or trio of hosts, it would be a dramatic hit for Ricochet.
Whadaya think?
Sounds like a great idea for NPR etc. Not sure it would add much to Ricochet.
Should we ask Mrs. Robinson?
Love the idea, a bit of a booking nightmare (but likely manageable). The bigger issue is — and we ask this question whenever we take on a new show– is: what’s episode 5? Essentially, the stories these people tell are going to be very similar. Oppressive culture, very few freedoms, no culture of innovation, etc. So (and I don’t mean to minimize it) when you’ve heard a few of these stories, you’ve probably heard all of them.
I would add that Jay Nordlinger has been interviewing dissidents and political asylum seekers on his podcast for years. He of course has many other types of guests too, but people who have fought and escaped oppressive regimes have been a mainstay of his show from the start.
Good point. If the focus were only on looking backward, then it wouldn’t work. The looking backward only works as a starting point to connecting to current news/events and foward-looking predictions. The arc of the show would build on an unfolding story, but of course the hosts are key. I would hope they were both serious and wryly humorous, like Alexandr S.
A thought, anyway.
James,
It appears that the Bosch series is available only as a Prime Video. While I have Amazon Prime, I like to be able to hold a DVD in my hands, but it looks like the only DVD’s are Region 2 or 4 or at least not Region 1 at Amazon.com. Any suggestions?
Gary
Gerard Baker’s succinct, cogent explanation on the valuation of GameStop should be mandatory listening for all. Basically, the company’s business performance past and present would indicate too high a risk. Caveat emptor. Then again, gambling is all about that kind of risk.
Maybe it’s farce, but the Francis Veber written/directed films I’ve seen (Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire, La cage aux folles, and Le diner de cons) are near the top of my “I think I hurt myself” list. True, the English language remakes (which he also wrote) pretty much suck, so maybe he’s only funny in subtitled French. And before him Rene Clair (Le Million, A nous la liberté, I Married a Witch). Then there’s Jacques Tati (Mr. Hulot series). I’ve been mildly amused by Gérard Depardieu in something I can’t remember the name of. Is Amélie not funny and without a heck of a lot of slapstick? And, when viewed properly lubricated, are not the works of Jean-Luc Godard frickin’ hysterical? Come on, dude.
[edit: 1 d in Godard.]
Why fear a few crazies in the House of Representatives if you don’t fear the crazies in government that have actually killed people through their overreaction to COVID?