Friday, at a press conference in Austin, President-elect George W. Bush named New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman as his pick for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“This job will be a challenge. I recognize that,” Whitman said, adding that she and Bush would act to strike “the right balance between being too stuffy and becoming totally declassé.”
“In New Jersey, we know how to protect the quality of water, the quality of life, our polo fields, our golf courses. To ensure that our suburbs and urban areas are not overrun by urban sprawl,” she said, “we keep the cost of living sky high so lots of people have to move to other states.”
“We also face the responsibility of being good stewards to 127 miles of beaches, thousands of miles of woodlands, and a portfolio of superfund cleanup sites that we cherish – all of this in the context of a dynamic and growing state presence in the life of every citizen.”
“In addition, as head of the EPA, I promise to continue my fight against the self-service gas station, a symbol of the disturbed spiritual state of our consumer culture. Being a good steward of the environment should not have to cost us jobs, especially the jobs of those cute grease monkeys.”
Whitman is a somewhat polarizing figure in her party. She is a favorite of economic conservatives because she is filthy rich, but is often criticized by social conservatives, who quite easily become agley. Because of her strong pro-abortion stance, many in the pro-life wing suspect that she may mandate putting RU-486 in the nation’s water supply.
Whitman’s views on abortion reportedly kept her from being considered as a potential Bush running mate, took her out of contention to head the Health and Human Services Department, and may have prevented her from winning the Miss New Jersey Pageant in 1972.
When GW Bush Talks, People Listen
A top economic aide to President Clinton accused President-elect George W. Bush Thursday of “talking down” the U.S. economy for short-term partisan gain and because he thinks it’s cool that he now can.
“I think it sends a signal that he’s willing to be political in describing the economy, instead of saying nice, non-partisan things that won’t distress it,” White House economic adviser Gene Sperling said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.
“Months ago, simply by contemplating running, Bush had already begun to destroy the strongest economy the world has ever known.”
“It’s not like when I was a young boy. Then, folks had respect for the economy. We would speak in hushed tones of reverence about its mysterious ways. Sometimes, if times got real rough, like if there were Republicans around, we would sacrifice a chicken or a stray cat and pray. Pray for someone like Bill Clinton to come along. Someone who could talk to the economy in a language that the economy can understand. Tame it. Make it behave like the gentle, compassionate, steadily-growing creature that it can be. Today, however, the economy is already cowering in fear just contemplating the huge deficit that Bush may bring about by his foolish, risky tax scheme. At any moment it could become hostile and irrational.
“The economy is not some unfeeling inanimate object that you can just hurl negative pronouncements at. It is a beautiful, living, breathing organism that that needs to be encouraged by thinking happy, positive thoughts. When its housing starts looked a little wan or its durable goods orders were drooping, President Clinton would often have Anthony Robbins come around help the economy to visualize a better image of itself. If this economy falters, it will be because of callous Republicans who don’t know that words can hurt.”
Bush, responding from Austin, told reporters “Darn right I’m talking down the economy – talking it down from a window ledge before it jumps.”
Being Alan Greenspan
For the first time in two years, Federal Reserve policy makers signaled that their stingy mood is about over and they’ll be getting back to their usual generous ways. Recession, they say, rather than inflation, poses the greatest risk to the record U.S.. economic expansion. This paves the way for a reduction in interest rates, perhaps at their next meeting, at the end of January. Through Stu’s uncle Mort Morgenstern, Capitol Hill barber to the elite and himself a political power broker, we were able to get an interview with Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. The Chairman agreed to meet us at the Hooters out on 50 in Fairfax. After a few rounds got him to loosen up and answer some questions:
LRC: What is your reaction to the recent decline in the NASDAQ?
AG: What Alan Greenspan giveth, Alan Greenspan taketh away.
LRC: The last time the Fed cut rates was in 1998, when the Russian debt crisis, the Long Term Capital Management collapse and a corresponding credit crunch crisis threatened to clobber markets and consumer confidence. Do you anticipate a similar move at the next Fed meeting?
AG: Let me answer that question with a short story. Three patients at a mental institution wanted to be released. The head psychiatrist gave them a simple test: “What is two plus two?” The first patient said, “Five.” The second, “Wednesday.” The third got it right. “Four,” he opined. The first two patients returned to their ward. Patient three was free to go. “By the way,” asked the doc as the man was leaving, “how did you work out the answer?” “Easy,” said the patient. “I just added five plus Wednesday.”
LRC: Alan, a poignant tale indeed. How are you able to sound so wise and thoughtful?
AG: The evening before I’m going to speak to the press I make a point of watching the movie Being There.
LRC: How are you able to manage something as complex as the modern American economy without interfering with the competitive forces of the market?
AG: The Fed chairman is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He is as omnipresent as partially hydrogenated soybean oil but as elusive as a squantz’s tears.
LRC: What can you tell us about your years spent in the Ayn Rand’s inner circle?
AG: Ayn Rand – God, now there was a woman! Tough as nails on the outside but soft as butter inside.
LRC: What were you thinking at that last Fed meeting, when you decided not to change interest rates?
AG: I was thinking, “Now what was that Mises told me? Do I feed a boom and starve a bust, or starve a boom and feed a bust?” I just couldn’t remember, so I decided we’d better stand pat.
LRC: Can you tell our readers anything about what it’s like being Fed Chairman?
AG: Man, this job is cool! People want to film me walking from my car to the Fed building. I made the president give me my own missile defense shield. I even got to meet Madonna!
December 25, 2000
Gene Callahan is a regular contributor to mises.org, and Stu Morgenstern is contributing editor at The Frumious Bandersnatch.
2000, Gene Callahan and Stu Morgenstern
