So I am lucky to catch a debate on Bloomberg on the topic “Does government stifle the American Spirit?”

On the side taking the affirmative (that government does in fact stifle the American Spirit) is my favorite economist, Arthur Laffer, and Phil Graham. On the other side is Laura Tyson and Nouriel Roubini.

As you can imagine, stumbling upon this is a form of intellectual orgasm for me.

Before this very civilized debate 29% of the audience felt the government did in fact stifle the American spirit, 44 % felt it did not, and 27% were undecided.  After the debate 49% felt the government did stifle the American spirit, 43 % felt they did not and only 8% were undecided.  Graham and Laffer obviously did a better job of convincing the fence sitters. This is no surprise to me.

I do confess that although I fundamentally disagree with Laura Tyson on almost all of her positions she did make intellectually sound arguments.  All four agreed on a number of positions. Three out of four agreed on many.

We need more forums like this.

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