On Driving Economic Charlatans from the Temple of Economic Policy

Richard Ebeling emails:

I have a new piece up on our Northwood blog, "defense of capitalism," in which I survey the continuing dangers from "Quick Fixes and Economic Fallacies."

Around the beginning of the 20th century British economist, Alfred Marshall," warned:

"Students of social science must fear popular approval; evil is with them when all men speak well of them. If there is any set of opinions by the advocacy of which a newspaper can increase its sales, then the student . . . is bound to dwell on the limitations and defects and errors, if any, in that set of opinions; and never to advocate them unconditionally even in an ad hoc discussion. It is almost impossible for a student to be a true patriot and have the reputation of being one at the same time."

Unfortunately, a whole host of economists who crave popular approval and political influence have been propounding a whole series of quack medicines to "heal" the economy, with the promise of curing the recession through of interventionist and monetary "elixirs."

Among the various political absurdities being perpetrated on the American people, I focus on the dangers from "government-business partnerships" and "fair trade vs. free trade," and the misguided idea of "lower interest rates and easy money for economic recovery."

Our task is to drive out the economic charlatans from the temple of economic policy.

This is an important piece that strikes at the heart of Fed manipulative policies, and contains important commentary about the public/private partnerships we are starting to hear so much about.

Read the full article here.