Felix Salmon defends Taibbi in "Fernholz vs. Taibbi" article from Reuters

[KoKo]

Fernholz vs Taibbi

by Felix Salmon


Dec 11, 2009 17:39 EST

Tim Fernholz’s intemperate attack on Matt Taibbi and his latest article is getting a lot of attention in the Twittersphere. It turns out that a lot of journalists don’t like Taibbi, and love it when he gets taken down a peg.

But Fernholz’s attack is weaker than it looks at first glance; a lot of it is simply a matter of slant and opinion. For instance:

“In the end, Frank not only agreed to exempt some 8,000 of the nation’s 8,200 banks from oversight by the castrated-in-advance agency, leaving most consumers unprotected.” The CFPA, while somewhat compromised, remains a strong agency that will protect consumers. In particular, all the banks in the country will be subject to the CFPA’s rules, and they will be able to inspect any bank they identify as problematic. You can also ask Elizabeth Warren, who came up with the idea, what she thinks of Frank’s proposal. Oh, I did.

Actually, Tim, the CFPA is not “a strong agency that will protect consumers”. In fact, it doesn’t even exist. And I clicked through; you didn’t ask Elizabeth Warren what she thinks of exempting 8,000 banks from CFPA oversight. And in any case there’s no doubt that if and when the CFPA does finally become reality, it will be smaller and weaker than when it was first proposed, especially now that it can’t mandate that banks offer plain-vanilla products.

As Taibbi writes:

Frank’s last-minute reversal — made in consultation with Geithner — was such a transparent giveaway to the banks that even an economics writer for Reuters, hardly a far-left source, called it “the beginning of the end of meaningful regulatory reform.”

Um, thanks for making me sound respectable?

In any case, I feel that Fernholz is a bit like Heidi Moore: he’s missed the point of Taibbi’s polemical style. Taibbi is not interested in an writing an even-handed examination of Obama’s economic policies: he’s interested in writing an enjoyable screed which jumps off the page and which describes Alan Greenspan as “a staggeringly incompetent economic forecaster who was worshipped by four decades of politicians because he once dated Barbara Walters”. This stuff isn’t meant to be taken nearly as literally as Fernholz is taking it — but in any case, Fernholz’s game of gotcha comes up with precious little of real substance.

more at..........

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2009/12/11/fernholz-vs-taibbi/