Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Fiction or Farce?

I love this!

http://www.cafehayek.com/hayek/

Sirs,
In "A Government Safety Net is Not Enough," Marc Morial and Janet Murguia begin by repeating the canard that "FDR’s New Deal helped lift the country out of the Great Depression." (April 29). This has been debunked repeatedly, including in reviews in your own paper of Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man. Not content to rewrite history, the two authors next assert that the stimulus bill was enacted "to boost economic growth." Your own paper has documented that (a) neither the vast majority of Congress nor the Administration had any idea of what was in the massive stimulus bill, making their intentions irrelevant and (b) it was a special interest feeding frenzy, redistributing wealth from our children to those whose lobbyists managed to claim them a share. When I want to read historical fiction, I head for the library. When I want to read contemporary political fantasies, the New York Times is readily available. I appreciate the Journal’s commitment to a diverse set of view points, but it would be better served by limiting contributions to those that reflect a clearer understanding of history and politics.
Andrew P. Morriss
H. Ross & Helen Workman Professor of Law and Business Professor, Institute for Government and Public Affairs University of Illinois