Rx for an Ailing Economy

Today on Weekend Edition Saturday Rep. Barney Frank quite rightly scolded Scott Simon for the tone of the story preceding his interview. The theme of the story: go out to J & R Computer on 5th avenue with an economist and have the economist explain how putting $500 bucks in a person's pocket, so they can afford to buy an iPod or some other consumer goods, helps the whole economy. It isn't that it is a bad thing to explain how buying stuff creates a cascade effect throughout the economy, but it is all about tone, and the tone of this one missed the mark. (Sorry, no link as of posting). Frank's response to Scott Simon was on the order of, this really isn't a laughing matter, and the truth is there are a lot of people that can use money to live on, not buy gadgets. Really, the tone of the story was better suited to Fox radio news. Good thing they got called on it.