Friday Roundup, May 10th
- So, to restrain the judiciary why not make a judgment in favor of self-government or a competitive politics structured by federalism and separation of powers? The latest Liberty Law Talk with Joshua Hawley evaluates some interesting answers to this question: “Making the Supreme Court Safe for Democracy.”
- In “The Founders Were No Shrinking Violets in the Use of Presidential Power,” Stephen Knott issues the latest response in our May Liberty Forum that debates if the current balance of power between the congressional and executive branches reflects a substantial deviation from the Constitution’s design.
- In the books section this week Peter Boettke reviews Angus Burgin’s The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets Since the Depression:
Most seductive in this transformation was the fact that Keynes seemed to combine the worst fear of unbridled capitalism (mass unemployment) with the source of the greatest resentment (the idle rich) into a coherent explanation for the troubles that plagued the US and the UK. Not only was this message seductive to politicians seeking both a scapegoat and a program for action, it was attractive to the young and brilliant economists who were entering into the economics profession during the 1930s and 1940s. They were given a purpose – economic science could be a tool of social control that when utilized appropriately could balance the economy, eliminate inefficiencies and curb injustice.
This is the world that F. A. Hayek and company challenged. It is the great “counter-revolution” in economic thought in the 20th century. Angus Burgin’s The Great Persuasion is the best social history yet written on this episode.
- Pedro Schwartz at Econ Lib: Why Keynes rejected the gold standard and Friedman sought to use it as a monetary source.
- NLRB’s poster rule struck down, coverage by National Journal.
- Cato’s Michael Cannon: Getting to 50 vetoes of Obamacare.
- Without tenure: Florida Polytechnic plans a new way to evaluate faculty consisting in multi-year contracts and teaching performance.