Is the West Wing Cluess About What is Going on with the Economy?

That's Simon Johnson's take after top White House adviser, David Axelrod. appeared on the Diane Rehm show. For starters, Johnson writes that Axelrod's performance was "awful."

And then he really lays into Axelrod and the Administration's other advisers. He suggests that the economic advisers did not properly brief Axelrod. All true. But, Johnson then goes on to call for tougher regs, even though in his book, 13 Bankers, its clear that he knows that the country is run by a bunch of oligarchs who will control any new regulation.

I still have long-term hope for Johnson. As the former chief-economist for the IMF, you would never expect Johnson to speak anywhere near the truth to power that he does. But somebody really needs to send him a copy of Murray Rothbard's The Mystery of Banking, so that he can understand Austrian Business Cycle Theory.