A slightly off-center perspective on monetary problems.
Here’s The Donald:
‘To be on the cover of Time as Person of the Year is a tremendous honor,’ Trump said.
Facepalm.
PS. At least they gave him devil horns.
PPS. Very different people, but similar chairs:
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25 Responses to “Hitler, Stalin, Khomeini, Putin . . . Trump”
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7. December 2016 at 19:53
Scott Sumner is too stupid to live.
7. December 2016 at 20:27
Amazing how many previous “Persons of the Year” enabled Trump in some way:
2015 Angela Merkel
2012,2008 Barack Obama
2011 The Protester (Representing many global protest movements — for example, the Arab Spring)
2010 Mark Zuckerberg
2009 Ben Bernanke
2007 Vladimir Putin
2006 You (Representing individual content creators on the World Wide Web)
2004,2000 George W Bush
2001 Rudy Giuliani
1999 Jeff Bezos
1998,1992 Bill Clinton
1995 Newt Gingrich
1991 Ted Turner (Founder of CNN)
7. December 2016 at 21:12
Scott Sumner is not comparing Trump to Schicklgruber.
7. December 2016 at 21:27
@ Benjamin Cole:
Thank you for the clarification.
7. December 2016 at 22:19
This is easily your best troll of Major Freedom. Let’s see if he can resist taking the bait.
8. December 2016 at 06:23
“Hitler, Stalin, Khomeini, Putin . . . Trump”
Angela Merkel also made this list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2QIZCvtzxA
8. December 2016 at 08:04
Harding, LOL. At least I didn’t think that “Person of the Year” is some sort of “honor”. He really is the dumbest man ever to be President.
8. December 2016 at 08:14
“At least I didn’t think that “Person of the Year” is some sort of “honor”.”
-It’s an acknowledgment of the person’s ability to change the world. If one thinks the change Trump has made to the world is good (as Trump does) then it is an honor. If, like TIME’s editors, one doesn’t, it’s not.
Dumber than even GWB and JFK? I doubt it. At least he predicted the outcome of the primary contests and general election correctly.
8. December 2016 at 08:17
Also, Sumner, you have yet to defend your claim John Breckinridge was less despicable than Trump.
8. December 2016 at 08:59
Harding, Don’t get cute, Trump thought that Time was honoring him. Just admit that your guy is an idiot.
The most amusing aspect of all this is that Trump is comparing himself to Hitler. “Like Hitler, I’ve been honored to be named Time’s Person of the Year.” That’s basically what Trump is saying. And people criticize me for (supposedly) comparing Trump to Hitler!
And I never mentioned Breckinridge.
8. December 2016 at 09:31
When I first saw this blog I laughed out loud–very funny—until I read your responses to your readers. I know you are trolling and having fun—-but as Freud allegedly said—“there is a little bit of truth in every jest”
I KNEW you would eventually directly link Hitler and Trump. Yes, you are camp, funny, and sarcastic— har har hardy har har, but I maintain you cannot help it—because you do see a similarity.
Of course Trump must be an idiot because he called it an honor. Do you think Time was not honoring Obama? I know the concept of man of the year and so does Trump. He found it an honor to have had the most impact in the world. Since he believes his impact will be positive, why not perceive it as an honor?
I now know you are a political hack (low iq points). You are so sure he is the dumbest guy ever to be president.
Review some Kahneman writings
I too can be camp.
8. December 2016 at 12:08
From Obama to Franciscus to Merkel to Trump. So it’s gradually going into the right direction. I bet he will make it again next year.
8. December 2016 at 12:30
Dumber than even GWB and JFK? I doubt it. At least he predicted the outcome of the primary contests and general election correctly.
Neither man was dumb. Steven Sailer had a commentary a number of years ago attempting to map George W. Bush’s scores on qualifying tests given by the Air Force to general psychometric examinations, and to map John Kerry’s as well. I think it was his contention that their scores corresponded to scoring the 88th percentile on an ordinary psychometric test. John Kennedy actually was given such an examination back in the day, and scored at the 88th percentile. That’s quite normal for someone in a professional-managerial occupation. Richard Nixon scored in the 99th percentile; Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson were big brains. Doesn’t make for effective policy development and administration all by its lonesome. Ronald Reagan was a natural at public administration, but certainly less intelligent than his three predecessors, who made quite a lot of mistakes.
8. December 2016 at 12:53
Why would it not be an honor? Like Harding said it’s an acknowledgment of influence and power. If your goal is influence and power then you will feel honored when scoring high on this list.
8. December 2016 at 14:29
Hard to believe some of my commenters think “Person of the Year” is supposed to be some sort of honor. Speaks volumes about how they view power. It’s an honor to be viewed as powerful? Really?
Then I get (wrongly) accused of comparing Trump to Hitler, by the very same people who are themselves comparing Trump to Hitler. Both were very powerful men. And the point is?
8. December 2016 at 14:54
It’s an honor to be viewed as powerful? Really?
That’s subjective. As I said: It might not be an honor for you but it’s surely an honor for people who seek power. This description fits all politicians for example. All politicians of importance seek power otherwise they would not be politicians. They would be great professors of economics maybe who cannot jumpstart their world-changing idea. But even those guys seek influence and power, even though they might not admit it.
8. December 2016 at 15:08
Sumner, you explicitly said “he’s the most despicable politician in American history”. Breckinridge was a politician in American history. Are you really gonna say he was less despicable than Trump?
@Art
“but certainly less intelligent than his three predecessors, who made quite a lot of mistakes.”
-Watching the Reagan-Carter debate, I sense the intelligence of both men was quite similar. Why do you say Reagan was less intelligent than Carter?
@ssumner
“Just admit that your guy is an idiot.”
-By what standard do you consider him an “idiot”? Winning the presidency despite near-universal scorn from the press?
8. December 2016 at 16:12
-Watching the Reagan-Carter debate, I sense the intelligence of both men was quite similar. Why do you say Reagan was less intelligent than Carter?
Jimmy Carter’s tour in politics was his third career. His second was supervising the family agribusiness. His first was as a naval submariner / engineer. Persuading Adm. Rickover you had the chops for the nuclear Navy was difficult. However, Carter was an indifferent administrator at best because he got bogged down in mintiae. Reagan knew how to husband his time, knew to delegate authority, and knew who to trust with delegated authority. Reagan was also better at composing political principles and directing policy courses per those principles.
Reagan had more intellectuality – an interest in ideas – than Gerald Ford or George Bush. However, Reagan’s employment was always in entertainment and public relations, although he knew something of the business side in his capacity as a union negotiator. He had tertiary schooling, which was definitely NOT a general expectation for an impecunious small town petit bourgeois in 1930. He and his brother attended a tiny denominational college in Illinois. That sort of place is not selective – its there to school adherents’ children. Both he and his brother made good coin in SoCal, however, he in entertainment and his brother in business. They both, however, left no legacy. His brother was childless and Reagan’s children and grandchildren are a hockey-puck convention.
8. December 2016 at 16:16
-By what standard do you consider him an “idiot”? Winning the presidency despite near-universal scorn from the press?
He values articulateness and sending little bourgeois cues over actual accomplishment. Recall Tyler Cowen said he would ‘miss’ BO. What’s he gonna miss, the John Koskinen / Eric Holder two-step?
8. December 2016 at 16:37
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
8. December 2016 at 17:10
Trump is nothing if not a master in self promotion. Do you really think he did not know that it was not an honor, or that he did know and made it an honor in the eyes of those who idolize him? You are starting to remind me of Detective Clouseau’s boss.
8. December 2016 at 17:27
Has anyone heard of “liberal projection”?
“The most amusing aspect of all this is that Trump is comparing himself to Hitler. “Like Hitler, I’ve been honored to be named Time’s Person of the Year.” That’s basically what Trump is saying.”
Actually, that is “basically” what you are saying.
E. Harding is correct about the criteria for Time. People who have significant impact in the world, for good or for bad, are eligible. A person who in their own judgment is doing good, could very well judge being named Time Person of the Year as an “honor”.
Suppose in Bizarro world where every economic theory that is false in our world is somehow true in Bizarro world, you Sumner were named Time Person of the Year, on the basis that central banks all over the world adopted 4.564837578% NGDP targeting, which stopped “big” business cycles forever. Define those terms anyway you want.
Are you saying that you would lose sleep every night because you would be in “a” group that includes Hitler? You would seriously not feel any flattery or honor? That to be smart and not stupid, everyone is to run with horror at the prospect of that ever happening to them?
What you are saying, then, is that Time should cease naming a Person of the Year, because doing so will put them in the same group as Hitler. Or, at least, they should forever after acknowledge that they are Hitler name shaming people.
Was Time degrading the entire human race when they named “You”, meaning everyone, as Person of the Year in 2006? According to your logic, YOU are in the same group as Trump and Hitler.
Oh, what’s that? You feel you have a justification to separate yourself from Hitler, regardless of what Time said about Persons of the Year?
That’s a checkmate.
msgkings, joke’s on you, because I trolled Sumner on this. I didn’t expect it would work, but perhaps trolling works best when you lure people into trolling themselves. Make them think they have the high ground, when they are just falling into your trap. I suspected Sumner couldn’t resist. 2006 was the year of the Sumner Slam.
9. December 2016 at 10:04
Harding, Yes, by the admitedly low standards of that era, he was not as bad as Trump. If you judge people by uniform standards then the average ghetto drug dealer is worse than George Washington, who owned lots of slaves. I thought people would understand that context, I guess not.
Engineer, You said:
“Do you really think he did not know that it was not an honor,”
I am sure he thought that. He’s that dumb.
9. December 2016 at 11:17
I will use Sumner’s own quote from earlier this week against him, “Congratulations on the dumbest post of the day.”
(I’m joking. This post is obviously a deliberate troll and provocation to Trump fans rather than a genuine statement)
10. December 2016 at 09:01
Massimo, It’s being a troll to point out that Trump said it was an “honor” to be named Time person of the year?