Re: ATMs and Automation

Jonah, it's easy to mock Barack Obama, but I think he makes a very good point about ATMs vs bank tellers.

If you go to an ATM and tap in, say, $16.4 trillion and wait for the machine to disgorge it in $20 bills, you get an anonymous computer message saying, "Sorry. You have exceeded your limit. Better luck next time."

But, if you go inside and talk to a compassionate human individual like head teller Ben Bernanke, he says, "Sure. You seem the kind of prudent responsible person whose credit is good for another couple trillion", and then he hires members of the Amalgamated Union of Quantitive Easers to plant extra money trees out back.

That's good for jobs and the environment and it stimulates demand for green-colored paper. What part of that don't you get? Like the First Lady says, the President is way smarter than anybody briefing him.