E.J. Dionne mentions in passing that he “he never did take Econ 101.” It is a curious admission.
His book Why Americans Hate Politics has a long, interesting, and quite accurate account of intellectual-political history after WW2 through the 1980s, and he included a very high role for Rothbard and the libertarians. And yet the puzzle to me was why he couldn’t somehow apply what he learned through his study of the history of ideas to the present context; indeed, his writing on politics is the usual naive sort that you find with any thoughtful social democrat who longs for good goverment. The missing link might, in fact, be economics, not only in that he lacks formal training (that may or may not teach what needs to be known) but his lack of curiosity about economic logic and economic forces that transcend political forces, the will of the people, the plans of pundits, and all the rest.
The failure to recognize how economics sets limits to the political imagination is a problem that afflicts both right and left. Mises provides a very clear statement as to why it is impossible to write or think about socio-political topics without an awareness of the reality of economic science.
(Thanks PrestoPundit.)
