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WAL-MART EFFECT VS WAL-MART REVOLUTION…

[Update -- 0734 -- Dr. Vedder has said that he is mulling over the offer and will let us know later today. I confess that I'm now having second thoughts about my snarky comments below, but I've published them and I'll let them stand.

We have often lamented that we did not have more reasonable, conservative voices represented here. I have no doubt that Mr. Fishman will be more even handed and Dr. Vedder more gracious than I if this blogalogue happens.]

Oh how far my alma mater has fallen. Ohio University Economics professor Richard Vedder joins the shamed Andrew Young in sock puppetdom as a Wal-Mart cheerleader with the fair-and-balanced American Enterprise Institute providing the pom poms.

Along with Wendell Cox, Vedder is the author of The Wal-Mart Revolution. The 175-page book, out today, tells the story of how Wal-Mart is saving America, according to Vedder. (Must… not… make… dark… side… jokes…)

“I know that sounds like an exaggeration,” he said, but “the economic transformation in U.S. retailing, which is personified by Wal-Mart, has been good for both America and its economy.”

Here’s the part I find really interesting. Vedder told his interviewer that neither he nor co-author Wendell Cox, a public-private partnerships expert, received any kind of assistance from the retail chain, even when they contacted the company seeking information for their book.

So Wal-Mart wouldn’t talk to them? They got zero information from Wal-Mart?

Hmmm. You’re an academic writing a scholarly work on the largest retail giant ever to straddle the globe and you don’t have any contact with your subject. Is this extremely poor scholarship or a very lame attempt to avoid the sock puppet mantle?

Vedder acknowledged that Wal-Mart and other big-box discount retailers such as Target or Home Depot have been vilified as selfish retailers that mistreat their workers, outsource American jobs, uproot communities and harm the poor.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

Really? That’s fascinating.

Here’s what I’m thinking. We need to somehow get Vedder and Charles Fishman engaged in a blogalogue. I’m sending emails out this morning to both authors to see what we can get together.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 0509 by Jeff Hess and is filed under Books, Media, Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “WAL-MART EFFECT VS WAL-MART REVOLUTION…”

  1. Honey Trap says:
    5 February 07 at 0631

    PhD (Piled higher and Deeper)

    Reply
  2. Jonathan Rees says:
    5 February 07 at 0810

    Careful Honey Trap, I resemble that remark. Seriously, let’s have no gratutitous Ph.D. bashing around here. Discuss material, not people.

    Two things I want to say about this one. I’ve already agreed to review Vedder’s book for Wal-Mart Watch. They’ve had some trouble getting it to me so I haven’t read it yet, but I may have a lot to say on this myself when it comes.

    Second, has Dr. Vedder forgotten this? NYT, 8/8/06:

    Richard Vedder, a visiting scholar at the institute, wrote an opinion article for The Washington Times last month, extolling Wal-Mart’s benefits to the American economy. ”There is enormous economic evidence that Wal-Mart has helped poor and middle-class consumers, in fact more than anyone else,” Mr. Vedder wrote in the article, which prominently identified his ties to institute.

    But neither Mr. Vedder nor the newspaper mentioned American Enterprise Institute’s financial links to the Waltons. Mr. Vedder, a professor at Ohio University, said he might have disclosed the relationship had the American Enterprise Institute told him of it. ”I always assumed that A.E.I. had no relationship or a modest, distant relationship with the company,” said Mr. Vedder, who has written a forthcoming book about the company. The book, he said in an interview yesterday, would eventually contain a disclosure about the Walton donations to the institute

    The link is here, but you need Times Select to see the part I quoted.

    Reply
  3. Have Coffee Will Write » WAL-MART WEDNESDAY… says:
    7 February 07 at 0842

    [...] WAL-MART EFFECT VS WAL-MART REVOLUTION… [Update — 0734 — Dr. Vedder has said that he is mulling over the offer and will let us know later today. I confess that I’m now having second thoughts about my snarky comments below, but I’ve published them and I’ll let them stand. [...]

    Reply
  4. The Writing On The Wal » Blog Archive » “Sentence first — verdict afterwards” says:
    12 February 07 at 1041

    [...] PS I finished Vedder’s and Wendell Cox’s book, The Wal-Mart Revolution, on Friday. As a result, I’m going to declare it Wal-Mart Revolution week here in my little corner of our blog. I strongly support Jeff’s invitation for him to debate Charles Fishman here, so I’m sorry if this decision scares Professor Vedder off. It’s just that so many parts of this book demand a response. I think I can do my part and still leave them plenty to kick around should he still decide to join us. [...]

    Reply

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