Open Letter to Ed Schultz
Dear Ed,
Love your show, and your down-to-eath presentation. Seems to me, though, that lots of folk out there don’t understand the basics of economics. “Trickle Up Economics” chart does a great job, but there are so many more ideas that need to be made clear.
- What is a bank? How does it work?
- What does GDP mean? or GNP?
- How does capitalism work?
- What is socialism?
- Why regulation?
- What’s the Euro? (soon to be huge)
- What’s a Board of Directors?
- What does ‘Incorporation” really mean?
- The difference between TARP and the Stimulus
I’m not suggesting you start a classroom going–that would be really dreadful. But every day, one of the above or a similar economic question comes up, or is caused by one of the above subjects.
So why not have your staff you surely have a competent staff) prepare a whole variety of answers to such questions; then, if there’s a bank failure, say, you can talk for a few minutes about how banks work. Or Congress is passing a national debt constitutional amendment, explain how the national debt works, and why that’s different from the deficit.
In other words, devote a portion of each show explaining the economic (or governmental) underpinnings of the issues the rest of the show deals in.
Just a suggestion; I look forward to seeing its implementation.
Yours,
Tom Bentley
Simpsonville, SC
tbentley@tbentley.com