Elites of the World, Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose!

And they are — but we have much to lose. See Iain Murray’s latest piece on the EU crisis.

The intellectual temptation — the Fatal Conceit — seems dominant in the political world (especially the financial world) today. It is not only a repudiation of limited government and democracy, it is also a repudiation of empiricism. They might have reviewed the record of central banks, IMF, and technocrats like Jeffrey Sachs. For the latter, see William Easterley’s (The White Man’s Burden — an exploration of the record of developmental aid) succinct graphic summary of his policy advice.

We’ve work to do. Never has there been such an opportune time to rethink the welfare/regulatory state, has society been so molten — but we must acquire the resources (directly or via creative alliances with business or other interest groups) to wage our reform efforts at the scale needed. Sigh.