It does not take much to see that the issues are basically the same today. The positions of the opposing sides are also the same. As I have said many times before, the great debate is still Keynes versus Hayek. All else is footnote.

On the one hand, a government safety net is needed to protect Americans from various hazards of life; on the other hand, that safety net shouldn’t bankrupt us.

Our educational and cultural institutions have been teaching for a generation that America is not a flawed country, but an bad one; not a beacon of hope to the world, but a source of evil. This doctrine is so at odds with history and experience that many Americans have resisted it. But not all, as this Rasmussen survey, taken in anticipation of Independence Day, suggests: “54% Agree That U.S. Is Nation with Liberty & Justice for All.” What is remarkable is that 34% disagree, while 11% can’t make up their minds. Moreover, only 45% of Democrats believe that the United States is a land of liberty and justice for all.

Remember that economic activity consists of patterns of specialization. Many patterns persist, but there are always old patterns that are breaking down and new patterns that are emerging. In general, the new patterns that emerge provide more wealth than the old patterns that break down. People shift to the new patterns in response to improved opportunities. The refugee problem arises when, instead of gradually giving way to a new pattern, an old pattern of specialization simply breaks down. A business model becomes obsolete. This in turn adversely affects related business models. The result is a flood of unemployed workers. Like a flood of new refugees, these unemployed workers cannot be rapidly absorbed by the economy. Instead, there is a long process of adaptation and adjustment. Some workers change jobs, some workers get retrained, and some workers retire and are replaced by workers of newer vintages. The time that it takes to restore full employment depends on the severity of the breakdown and the nature of the adaptations required.

Today, the Federal Reserve Board is monopolized by mad professors. This is simple to understand, and impossible to ignore, by any non-economist who reads their ravings. However, it seems that the hypnotic spell under which Americans revere academic credentials blinds the public to the utter incapacity of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to accomplish any activity beyond finding the men’s room.

But on the other hand the theorists, who are not themselves active in the conduct of affairs and merely philosophize about other people’s actions, consider themselves smart enough to discover the fallacies leading astray those doing business. These omniscient professors are never deluded by the errors which cloud the judgment of everyone else. They know precisely what is wrong with private enterprise. Their claims to be invested with dictatorial powers to control business are therefore fully justified. The most amazing thing about these doctrines is that they furthermore imply that businessmen, in their littleness of mind, obstinately cling to their erroneous procedures in spite of the fact that the scholars have long since unmasked their faults. Although every textbook explodes them, the businessmen cannot help repeating them. There is manifestly no means to prevent the recurrence of economic depression other than to entrust — in accordance with Plato’s utopian ideas — supreme power to the philosophers.

According to Bill Clinton (HT: Drudge) Robert Byrd wasn’t a racist, he just played one on the campaign trail. He was just pretending to be a racist. To get elected. So he wasn’t a racist. Just unprincipled. That’s a relief. Thanks, Bill.

In reality, school spirit becomes an outlet for some of the most primitive and vicious kinds of tribalism and, indeed, a breeding ground for the kinds of sentiments that, in an adult, might morph into jingoism and xenophobia. The notion of school spirit quite prominently and crudely creates a clear distinction between “us” in school x and “them” in school y. “We” are urged to beat, smash, crush, bring down, (insert other destructive verbs at your discretion) “them” at the next athletic event or other extracurricular competition.