[ExI] I know I shouldn't do it

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

Every time I post on the economy I get drawn into fruitless arguments
with enemies of capitalism and I know it's best just to stay out of
it, but this time I can't help it (again):

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/06/krugman-economy-is-stabilizing.html

Of course, given *this* authority I can't be wrong, can I?

BTW, Daniel Sullivan linked previously to Krugman's day care story
(http://www.slate.com/id/1937/) and this little parable almost
immediately struck me as fatuous. I mean, here is a guy widely
acclaimed to be devilishly smart, professing that his life was changed
by a story that even I, an almost-average joe with no formal training
in economics, could dissect as irrelevant. My eyes were quickly drawn
to these words: "It issued scrip--pieces of paper equivalent to one
hour of baby-sitting time" (i.e. this was a fixed-price economy), and
the rest became irrelevant drivel.

The lesson I draw from the baby-sitting parable is that given enough
zeal even the genii among us can willfully blind themselves to the
obvious, i.e. untrammeled capitalism, completely unregulated free
markets and polycentrism are good, while monopolies, state control and
violence (so dear to so many) are bad.

Here is what a real economist has to say on the issue:

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/05/krugmans_baby-s.html

Rafal