The latest issue of Time magazine is causing quite the to do. It leads with an article titled, “Make America Solvent Again,” written by Jim Grant.
Economist Paul Krugman is already out ripping the piece, mainly via ad hominem attack on the author:
No Time for Credibility https://t.co/HttlaZaOzM
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) April 14, 2016
Investment Adviser Barry Ritholtz perpetuates a similar ad hominem on the publication itself along with repeating Krugman’s genetic fallacy in a similar post:
Time Magazine LOL https://t.co/4FzY0Ke399
— Barry Ritholtz (@ritholtz) April 15, 2016
At the same time, you have former Fed insider, Danielle DiMartino Booth, with a plea this week very similar to Grant’s:
— DiMartino Booth (@DiMartinoBooth) April 13, 2016
And the greatest money manager alive has been singing Grant’s song for quite some time now:
STANLEY DRUCKENMILLER: 'This is the most unsustainable situation I've seen in my career' https://t.co/mL3rnZ0LWY pic.twitter.com/HupZRpbkmt
— Business Insider (@businessinsider) April 3, 2016
So who do you believe?
Forget my own logical fallacy (appeal to authority) here for a minute. Personally, I find the sheer volume of disdain for this article alone to be very troubling. It’s a shame that what could be the most important issue facing our nation can’t even be discussed openly among adults without immediately devolving into personal attacks. But the fact that it does suggests to me these critics must feel a great deal of insecurity about their own position. Why else would they give up on it and resort to these sorts of epithets and fallacies so quickly?