Wednesday, February 14, 2018

A note to my "progressive" friends ...

Progressives, lend me your ears!

Yeah, you have every right to be upset with the state of the nation and the world and kudos for trying to change it. But here's the thing. Waiving your arms at "capitalism" isn't going to accomplish anything useful. For starters, nobody agrees what capitalism even means. It has become a catch all for "scary stuff I don't like," much the way that "Glass Steagall" became some kind of supposed super regulation after the Panic of 2008. Most of you have no idea how financial markets and intermediaries work and hence have no clue about which regulation(s) might be better than others and you wouldn't know adverse selection from moral hazard.

To have any chance of changing the world for the better, you have to understand it first! If you blog, tweet, even snap, crackle and pop to the same few (hundred, thousand, million) like-minded people, you're just pandering to a base, not effecting positive change. If you don't have the analytic skills and knowledge base to critique a system in concrete terms, you have no intellectual basis for calling for the eradication of this, or the regulation of that.

Until you understand some economics (theories as well as institutional details), please stick with human rights issues. I hate to have to criticize the thoughts of friends and colleagues but feel I must when they start talking out their you know whats. If you agree and want to learn more about economics, the financial system, public policy, and so forth, feel free to start here.

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