The Embargoed Truth About Job Creation

This is an astonishing story I’ve been struggling to wrap my head around this morning as I wait for the coffee to drip.

“TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate ‘ideas worth spreading,’ says Wikipedia. In March, a venture capitalist from Seattle named Nick Hanauer gave a talk at TED on income inequality that clearly and succinctly destroyed all the BS talking points about the rich being “job creators.” Middle-class consumers are the real job creators, he said.

Most TED conference talks are published on the TED website for public viewing. But this one was embargoed for being too politically partisan. Over the past few hours several leftie bloggers and columnists such as Ezra Klein learned of this and gave TED a good smacking for being weenies. TED shot back that the charges against them are unfair; but they also admitted they embargoed the talk for being too politically partisan. So, yeah, they are weenies.

However, being weenies, they caved to pressure and released the talk. You must watch this:

The transcript is at National Journal.

And as you read or watch, remind yourself that this talk was considered too radical / controversial / partisan to be released to the public. And then email it to your wingnut uncle.