#econ debate

If you could find Bloomberg TV on your dial, you may have caught Newt Gingrich's attacks on Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. In his warped version of reality, the global financial meltdown wasn't about stock speculators, fraudulent rating agencies actions, corruption of the mortgage industry, CDO's and the AIG Asset Management insurance scheme that and the rest of the crooks that collapsed the markets. Nope, in the last GOP presidential debate on Oct 11, he blames all their problems on two guys named Dodd and Frank and their usual meme about government regulations, :

"If you want to put people in jail, you ought to start with Barney Frank, Chris Dodd," Gingrich said, responding to a questioning about why Wall Street executives weren't arrested after the financial crisis.

Barney released a quote after the debate:

"As to the facts, the Republicans -- part of the time under Newt Gingrich -- ran Congress from 1995 until 2006, the period during which the financial crisis began and then rose to disastrous proportions. Chris Dodd and I were in the minority during that time, and in fact no remedial action was taken by Congress until we became chairmen of our respective committees in 2007 and 2008." "Apparently, Newt Gingrich -- who considers himself one of the intellectual leaders of the free world -- is so embarrassed by the fact that he is running behind Michele Bachmann in Republican polls that it has increased his already well-developed propensity to utter outlandish things."

Barney joined Chris Matthews and eviscerated Newt for almost ten straight minutes in response to Mr. Tiffany's pompous remarks with both barrels blazing.

I think Herman Cain is a flash in the pan--he was confident and remained on message all night, but pretty soon that message is going to sound flat and one-dimensional.

Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum both had strong points, but neither of them are very likely to gain much ground after tonight's performance. I think both of them sense that they can beat Romney on the substance, but tonight's format didn't present much opportunity for either candidate to directly engage him for any sustained period of time.

Rick Perry continues to disappoint. He appears increasingly out of his depth.

With the exception of his answers about the Federal Reserve, Ron Paul was barely noticeable.

Michele Bachmann was even more unmemorable, though she did rip on Herman Cain's "9-9-9 Plan" (“When you take the 9-9-9 plan and turn it upside down, I think the devil is in the details.”). 

Ron Paul, rebutting Herman Cain's statement that of the Federal Reserve Chairmans of the last forty years, he thought Greenspan was the best. This was a curious choice, and not a politically convenient one due to Greenspan's proximity to many of America's financial flaws over the last decade — which means, we reckon, that it was an honest answer. So hats off to that!

Herman Cain, answering Rick Santorum's challenge as to how he'd prevent the rates in his tax plan from being raised over time; he also promised to protect the rates with the veto pen while in office.