An Open Letter To Bill Maher
Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance
On my run this morning, I was listening to the most recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. In the episode, Maher speaks with Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Bill O’Reilly about the election of New York City mayor-elect Zoran Mamdani.
As part of his explanation for why Mamdani was elected, Maher launches into a speech about how the economy isn’t working for many Americans and tacitly admits he doesn’t understand how bifurcated the economy has become:
“I understand why people are angry about the economy, especially in New York…Explain this economy. How some people are eating $36 cheeseburgers and other people are voting for socialism. And I understand why they’re voting for socialism — because they can’t even make ends meet and they’re worried about not eating at all.”
Maher has correctly identified the problem: the gap between the “haves” and “have nots” is getting wider. Elsewhere in the show, as Maher continues to unpack why the economy feels broken, he’s forced to acknowledge that the stock market is at all-time highs. From there, he asks—genuinely confused—why costs are so high and why ordinary people can’t afford basic necessities.
I’ve seen the same with what feels like an endless line of pundits and political commentators who want to discuss the economy but don’t really understand its dynamics. Maher can’t really point to what’s making the economy “bad” under Trump—despite the record stock market—because he doesn’t understand the underlying forces driving the inflation he’s criticizing.
The “health” of the economy has become a moving target for people eager to attack it by any means. One day they’ll judge it by job numbers, the next by the stock market, and on Friday, in Bill Maher’s case, by the cost of consumer goods.
What Maher needs to understand is that the inflation he’s using to condemn the state of the economy stems from a massive, bipartisan failure to confront America’s monetary policy. Both Republicans and Democrats have been negligent in challenging the...(READ THIS FULL COLUMN, 100% FREE, HERE).