Proof That Stupid Can't Be Fixed

Given another chance, the bakers’ union representing 5,600 Hostess workers again decided to let its members – and 13,000 Hostess employees represented by other unions – lose their jobs rather than accept bankruptcy court-ordered wage and benefits cuts that would have kept the 82-year-old company afloat.

The maker of Twinkies clearly had been mismanaged over the years, but the move by the bakers’ union is inexplicable. (Other unions, including the Teamsters, which represented 6,700 Hostess workers, had accepted the concessions.) Put simply: It chose – and chose for others – no jobs over jobs.

As Mama always said: “Stupid is as stupid does.”

“Those Who Forget History Are Doomed To Repeat It”

“[The president] offered rhetorical optimism, but pessimism underlay his policies. ... he cared little for constitutional niceties and believed they block progress. His remedies were on a greater scale and often inspired by socialist or fascist models abroad.”

Barack Obama? No, Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. In her prescient book The Forgotten Man, economic historian and commentator Amity Shlaes details how Roosevelt’s policies turned a depression into the Great Depression. The similarities between what happened then and what’s happening now are sobering.