Brian Gongol
Podcast: Updated weekly in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. Subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or iHeartRadio
During the CNBC Republican debate this last week, Jim Cramer asked a couple of questions late in the debate:
"[H]ow do we restore faith in the markets for the little guy?"Pretty disingenuous questions, coming from a guy who makes his money yelling and screaming as though investing is something you do with a gun to your head. Even more disingenuous coming from a guy who admits to dodgy (if not criminal) behavior. Sensible investors have no reason to listen to this windbag.
"When the economy was going great, people were getting ripped off and there was insider trading. When the economy was going great, people were getting hurt in the stock market. Forget the economy. Talk about the way the market is regulated."
A House proposal would probably put a lot of disabled adults out of work. It's well-intentioned, of course: They want to raise wages for disabled adults who work in non-profit programs. But the problem is that they might not be able to produce the kind of output that would justify those higher wages. As long as we're providing them with adequate social-welfare support (which we absolutely should), then jobs for those folks should be considered a means of increasing their welfare. They're not working to keep the lights on and to put food on the table; they're working so that they can share in that sense of self-worth that comes from having a job. There's an inherent dignity to work, and it's better to have these adults have the opportunity to have that work -- even if it's low-pay work -- than to be pushed out of the workplace altogether by well-meaning regulations that would bankrupt the non-profit programs that help them.
One final note: How innovation (in fields other than just smartphone apps and Web 2.0 sites) could turn the economy around.