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Bryan Caplan  
PERMANENT LINK | APRIL 28, 2009

Crisis Dialogue

Bryan Caplan
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Inequality and Segregation... When You Put It That Way, Scot...
My co-author Scott Beaulier shares a funny but informative dialogue with his lawyer here.  Excerpt:

LAWYER: So you're an economist at Mercer?

ME: Yep.

LAWYER: What do you think of this crisis?

ME: Well, I'm really concerned about the long-run effects it will have.  I expect much higher taxes and much higher inflation because of our actions today.

LAWYER (cutting me off): Inflation?  Inflation?  That's the least of my concerns.  Let me tell you what I think...I think we're in a Japan era rut.  We're going to go sideways for a long time.  I think that if we hadn't acted back in September and October, we were hours away from financial Armageddon.  I just don't understand how people can continue to argue against regulation after all we've been through.  It was three  strokes of the pen to remove regulation that got us into this mess.  I think the most asinine position to hold is the Rick Santelli one of "don't bail out the losers."  You're not one of the Mercer economists who wrote that article in the paper, are you?

ME: I am, and I actually find myself in agreement with Santelli.
As Homer says, "It's funny because it's true."

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COMMENTS (4 to date)
JP writes:

That's amusing. (And well transcribed -- I can hear it going down exactly like that.)

At the end of Scott's piece, he says to himself, "It's no crime to be ignorant of economics." But the lawyer's views didn't seem to be all that different from Richard Posner's in his new book, and Posner certainly isn't ignorant of economics (is he?).

Posted April 28, 2009 1:16 PM
Carl The EconGuy writes:

Funny thing is both the lawyer and Scott are right. Lawyer, "we're in a rut and going sideways for a long time" -- absolutely true. Scott, "don't bail out the losers" -- or you slideways for a long time.

Posted April 28, 2009 2:01 PM
M writes:

[Comment removed pending confirmation of email address and for rudeness. Email the webmaster@econlib.org to request restoring your comment privileges.--Econlib Ed.]

Posted April 29, 2009 2:24 AM
George writes:

This just in:

Lawyer believes in regulation!

Posted April 30, 2009 4:38 PM
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