Monday, October 1, 2012

An "Appreciation" for the Creep Ed Crane

This is, in certain ways, really difficult to understand. David Henderson has an "appreciation" for Ed Crane, who was president of what has now become for all practical purposes Cato Shrugged.

Henderson hails Crane for being principled and not being corrupted by Washington D.C. But one has to ask, why did the creep want to move the Institute to D.C. in the first place? The Mises Institute has done a much better job of advancing libertarian ideals from West Magnolia Avenue in Auburn, Alabama. The only thing Cato Shrugged can do better from D.C. is hold events where beltarians attend and listen to the likes of the power elite, such as past Cato guests Ben Bernanke and Chris Christie.

The Bernanke appearance resulted in Cato having an orgasm over Bernanke's meaningless comments at Cato. Cato has on its web site, as if it means something:
 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke unveils several changes within the Fed he hopes will improve the central bank's transparency.
This is what Henderson thinks Crane should be appreciated for?

Henderson conveniently in his "appreciation" does not mention Crane's manipulations that resulted in ouster of Murray Rothbard from Cato, who wanted to keep the Institute principled over the objections of Crane!

But even on a personal level there is no reason why most would go out of their way to hail Crane. It certainly can not be a secret to Henderson as to the views held by some past female employees of Cato (some with lawyers and settlements) as to Crane the Creep.

And thus the question raised decades ago by Rothbard becomes important once again, what is the tight connection between Crane and Henderson? Rothbard wrote in 1981 of the "Henderson Affair":
The Sarajevo of the Cato Institute was a seemingly simple act: the hiring by Crane of Dr. David Henderson as his policy analyst and economist. The hiring of Henderson came as a thunderclap at Cato. Why was he hired? The firestorm of opposition to Henderson that broke out among all the Cato executives was based not so much on personal hostility as on the fact that the Cato Institute was supposed to be deeply committed to Austrian economics. Yet Henderson was not only not an Austrian but strongly hostile. So why was he hired? Especially since all those at Cato with economic backgrounds were bitterly opposed to the appointment. 
And there it is, only a non-Austrian economist, who Crane brought into what was supposed to be a principled Austrian economics-committed institute,  could see Crane as principled and deserving of an appreciation. Bernanke and Christie probably think the same way about Crane also.

3 comments:

  1. Does anyone have an appreciation for Fred Smith and CEI? CEI, though not as good as the Mises Institute, was always a more hard-core alternative to Cato.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I guess I'm confused here, what exactly is the "orgasm" Cato had over Bernanke? It seems that little block quote was just a description of what Bernanke had to say at his talk--that HE (Bernanke) "hoped" whatever changes he discussed would provide some transparency. Does that say anywhere that Cato or its scholars agree that these changes will lead to transparency? Maybe Cato analysts do believe that Ben Bernanke is just wonderful, but nothing in that description suggests that they do. Do you have blog posts or op-eds where Cato scholars, management, etc. agree with what Bernanke had to say? I haven't read every Cato blog post on this subject but nearly every one I have has been critical of him and the Fed in general. Is it merely that Cato invited Bernanke to speak there that you can't stand? I mean, I guess living in an echo chamber can be comforting, but the occasional discussion with those you disagree with is a good thing from time-to-time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now THAT is what I call a smack-down! Kudos, Robert. Don't let these pseudo-libertarians get off easy.

    ReplyDelete