Saturday, July 31, 2010

New York Comptroller Confess Ignorance On Bonds

Well, it's not like you need to know these type of things if you're a Democrat, I suppose. Just repeat "Taxes good, Business bad" enough and you are considered a Krugman-esque economic wizard:

State Controller Thomas DiNapoli flubbed a basic question yesterday about one of his office's fundamental tasks - how it sells bonds.

Asked whether they pick managers for the bond business through a competitive process or from a list of prequalified companies, DiNapoli couldn't say.

"We look at it on a case-by-case basis," DiNapoli said. "So, uh, the last one, we can check and get back to you."

In fact, a state rule requires bond managers to be picked competitively, with rare exceptions for extraordinary circumstances...


You would think the man responsible for managing and advising on the debt of a red-ink laden state like New York would at least have a basic understanding of who was selling that debt. But nope, no clue...

Is there a Democrat in this country - from Barack Obama on down - who has even a basic freshman-level understanding of how macro-economics works? Or have they all ditched troublesome things, such as facts, in favor of management by ideology?

Interesting note - the print version of the left-of-center New York Daily News, which reported this story, contains criticism of DiNapoli from his Republican opponent. Scrubbed out of the web version, though. Can't have the folks knowing there is more than one party available to rule them...

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