Not All Private Equity People Are Evil.

Most People, I Suspect, Still Have In Their Minds An Image Of America As The Great Land Of College Education, Unique In The Extent To Which Higher Learning Is Offered To The Population At Large. That Image Used To Correspond To Reality. But These Days Young Americans Are Considerably Less Likely Than Young People In Many Other Countries To Graduate From College. In Fact, We Have A College Graduation Rate That's Slightly Below The Average Across All Advanced Economies.

Now, It’s True That Some Of The Protesters Are Oddly Dressed Or Have Silly-sounding Slogans, Which Is Inevitable Given The Open Character Of The Events. But So What? I, At Least, Am A Lot More Offended By The Sight Of Exquisitely Tailored Plutocrats, Who Owe Their Continued Wealth To Government Guarantees, Whining That President Obama Has Said Mean Things About Them Than I Am By The Sight Of Ragtag Young People Denouncing Consumerism.

Obama Is Very Much An Establishment Sort Of Guy. The Whole Image Of Him As A Transcendent Figure Was Based On Style Rather Than Substance. If You Actually Looked At What He Said, Not How He Said It, He Said Very Establishment Things. He's A Moderate, Cautious, Ameliorative Guy. He Tends To Gravitate Toward Beltway Conventional Wisdom.

I Don't Think I've Had Any Great Success In Predicting Politics Or Social Change, Nor Have I Really Tried.

[t]he Next Time You Hear Serious-sounding People Explaining The Need For Fiscal Austerity, Try To Parse Their Argument. Almost Surely, You'll Discover That What Sounds Like Hardheaded Realism Actually Rests On A Foundation Of Fantasy, On The Belief That Invisible Vigilantes Will Punish Us If We're Bad And The Confidence Fairy Will Reward Us If We're Good. And Real-world Policy - Policy That Will Blight The Lives Of Millions Of Working Families - Is Being Built On That Foundation.