My Farewell Interview with Marketplace

My final interview with Marketplace is up on the web:

RYSSDAL: So why this move? Why is this no longer a good fit for you?

FRUM: Well, we've been doing a point/counter-point here between me and Bob Reich for a couple of years. And it's been a lot of fun. I've certainly learned a lot from it. But I think that there's a kind of expectation that when you do it that you represent the broad point of view of your half of the political spectrum. And although I consider myself a conservative and a Republican, and I think that the right-hand side of the spectrum has the better answers for the long-term growth of economy -- low taxes, restrained government, less regulation -- it's pretty clear that facing the immediate crisis -- very intense crisis -- I'm just not representing the view of most people who call themselves Republicans and conservatives these days.

RYSSDAL: Let me quote you back to yourself in a post that you made on FrumForum not too long ago. You say: "Under the pressure of the current crisis -- intoxicated by anti-Obama feelings and incited by talk radio and Fox -- Republicans have staked out an extreme position on the role of government." That's where we are in this discussion, right?

FRUM: It's not just the role of government though. We have got a sick patient -- the American economy. And we can see that the patient in the next bed -- the European economy -- he's looking even sicker and there's a real risk of contagion. And what I think we have to do at a moment like this: Have a very, very open creation of money and credit. This is not a moment for government to be cutting back. Here's where Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes agreed. They didn't necessarily agree about why to do this medicine, but as to what the medicine was, they did broadly agree. But it's not the medicine that's being prescribed now.

Click here to read the full transcript.