Simple Minds

Here's Peter Boettke's plea for simplicity in economics as the key to reforming our troubled economy. Yes, I'm sure our technocratic overlords will get on that right away: Simple Economics Is Not Necessarily Simple Minded

In Extraordinary times, what we need most is ordinary economics. Crises such as the collapse of communism, the failure of development planning, the rise of tensions over globalization, the consequences of a major natural disaster, and financial collapse need to be met not by extraordinary theories designed to provide emergency room economics, but by a return to cool-headed and basic economic principles. Incentives matter even in the economic emergency room, and in fact, since we are dealing with an emergency to forget that basic point is perhaps even more costly than in normal time, perhaps so costly as to be deadly for the economy. Losing our heads as economists and violating the basic principles of the discipline is how we turn a market correction in to an economy wide crisis --- which in my view is what we have done over the last year and a half.

I can't disagree with any of that. But, when virtually everyone who is presently in a position to reform the system is a PhD with an Ivy League background, it is a faint hope indeed that they will enthusiastically embrace simplicity as a panacea. In fact, complexity is the only thing they will respect, and Americans who object to bizarrely convoluted "comprehensive" reform will be chided for their ignorance and childishness.