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**AUGUST 11, 2023**

On the Prospect website

* David Dayen on Amazon's quiet role in the green hydrogen debate
<[link removed]>

* Luke Goldstein on Democratic centrists vs. progressives in Rhode
Island
<[link removed]>

* Lee Harris on how economists are wrong to side with a semiconductor
giant
<[link removed]>
over workers

Kuttner on TAP

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**** Pitch Meeting 

Is there anything capitalism can't co-opt?

News item: Mattel Unveils Weird Barbie Doll
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based on Kate McKinnon character

News item: 'Barbie' Surpasses $1 Billion at the Box Office
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Greta Gerwig: Thank you for giving us this meeting.

Robbie Brenner, Executive Producer, Mattel Films: Happy to take it. So
let me get this straight, you want do a product placement deal for
Barbie?

Gerwig: Not a product placement. Think of it as one giant informercial,
with a couple of reverse twists.

Brenner: Okay ...

Gerwig: The first reverse twist is that we retroactively turn Barbie
into a feminist icon, so that you can sell more Barbies to the next
generation of little girls, with the approval of their feminist moms.

Brenner: That would take some doing.

Gerwig: And the second reverse twist is that the movie makes Mattel look
ridiculous.

Brenner: Seriously? We would want script approval.

Gerwig: Of course. Actually, Mattel will be underwriting a lot of the
cost of the movie.

Brenner: That would really take some doing. So, uh, how do you turn
Barbie feminist?

Gerwig: The happy Barbies live in Barbie Land. It's sort of a naïve
female paradise where there's a role reversal. The Kens are like
subservient wives, almost extraneous. We rebrand Barbies as
proto-feminists. We give them agency. When the credits roll, we show
historical Barbies dressed as doctors, astronauts, and so on. As you
know, all this came well after second-wave feminism led the way, only in
the '80s and '90s, but the viewer won't know that.

Brenner: That's it?

Gerwig: There's more. After the basic exposition, the lead Barbie has
a depressing thought, and she is sent to the Real World to make amends.
She comes back to Barbie Land joined by a renegade Mattel woman, to find
that the Kens have taken over. But they organize and reverse the coup.
And along the way, they spout a lot of feminist rhetoric, reinforcing
the revisionist rebranding of Barbie.

Brenner: And they live happily ever after?

Gerwig: There's one more twist. Think Pinocchio. First, Barbie has to
become a Real Girl. At the end, we trot out Barbie's Geppetto, the
Mattel executive who created her, Ruth Handler. The movie ends with
Barbie getting a vagina.

Brenner: You really think this will revive the Barbie brand and make
Barbie feminist? I mean, generations of moms wouldn't let Barbie in
the house. Not only did she reinforce traditional girl stereotypes. Her
figure was preposterous, an invitation to anorexia.

Gerwig: No problem. Now there can be all sorts of Barbies, thin, fat,
even weird. Feminists will love it. They've won. Even Barbie is a
feminist, and always was.

Brenner: Will we have plenty of lead time to plan the marketing
campaign, so that we can launch right when the movie opens?

Gerwig: Of course, that's the whole idea. Mattel will make billions
with Feminist Barbie. So what do you think, Robbie, can we do it?

Brenner: Yes. We can.

**Yes we can!** The movie will make billions, too. Sisterhood is
powerful.

Gerwig: Capitalism is more powerful.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

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Econ Commentators Join TSMC to Declare U.S. Workers' Premature Defeat
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The econ blogosphere hasn't really checked, but knows in its heart
American workers aren't up to the job. BY LEE HARRIS

Amazon's Quiet Role in the Green Hydrogen Debate
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The e-commerce company is a principal member of the trade group lobbying
the Treasury Department for looser rules on the emerging fuel. BY DAVID
DAYEN

Progressive and Moderate Wings Collide in Rhode Island House Race
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Aaron Regunberg has left-wing endorsements; Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, more
centrist ones. But Matos is fending off a series of scandals. BY LUKE
GOLDSTEIN

 

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