In a recent review of David Stockman’s new book, The Great Deformation, Bloomberg columnist Clive Cook seeks to discredit Stockman by comparing him to Ron Paul. This is to be expected from a mainstream media pundit. What I did not expect and what set my heart aflutter was the following remark — more so because of its casual delivery:
The scope of the critique, while crazy, is undeniably impressive. It has a kind of logical integrity. Everything is worked out and all the connections explained. Stockman has been reading his economic history and his Austrian economics. Crucially, a lot of what he says really does make sense. In understanding the crash, for instance, the Austrian school’s emphasis on the role of the credit cycle looks right.
When a doctrine penetrates the thinking and writings of the intellectual class that communicates directly with the public — whom Hayek referred to as “second-handers in ideas” — it is well on its way to widespread public acceptance. With a new asset bubble already a-brewing with all its catastrophic aftereffects, the time draws near when mainline Austrian economics from Menger through Rothbard to current Mises Institute economists will triumph over current academic economics.
HT to Lew Rockwell.
