Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek and chair of George Mason’s econ department writes about five letters to the editor per week, which he also sends out to an email distribution list. Usually they’re taking some dumb reporter or columnist to task for completely misunderstanding basic economic principles. His latest is to the New York Times, in response to this piece:

To the Editor:

Gunter Grass’s economic ignorance is forgivable. For example, when he mistakenly blames global capitalism for Germany’s persistently high unemployment rate (“The Gravest Generation,” May 7), we can excuse him for not understanding how Germany’s burdensome labor-market regulations raise to inordinate heights the costs of hiring workers.

What’s not forgivable is Herr Grass’s description of capitalism as “a new totalitarianism.” Investment bankers don’t murder legions of innocent people: CEOs don’t imprison competitors and former associates in gulags; marketers don’t ban books; stockbrokers don’t shut down newspapers at gunpoint; and corporations don’t conscript young men to fight and die in foolish wars.

To equate peaceful, voluntary commerce with the likes of Nazism and Stalinism is obscene.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University

I think he should package all of his letters into a book. Call it something like, Dear Editor…One Man’s Written Crusade Against Economic Ignorance.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 7th, 2005 at 2:37 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.