BRYAN CAPLAN
May 7, 2013
Keynesian Bets: What's Out There
May 6, 2013
Keynesian Bets Bleg
May 6, 2013
The Pyramid of Macroeconomic Insight and Virtue
May 2, 2013
A Natalist Provision
May 1, 2013
I Was a Teenage Misanthrope
DAVID HENDERSON
May 5, 2013
John Thacker on Vaccinations and the Sequester
May 3, 2013
Chef Rudy's Virtues Project
May 2, 2013
My take on Reinhart and Rogoff
May 1, 2013
Medicare Kills a Program
SHARE
And if you're the government, most of the smartest people work for people who are trying to get around your regulations.
"When it comes to having faith in experts, I yield to no one. I have tons of faith in experts. I just lack faith in experts who require the power of the state standing behind their expertise."
That last sentence is key. If someone requires violence to back up their expertise, then there expertise is in getting people to back them up with violence, not whatever it is they are claiming.
So it seems that certain segments of the credit market are about to shut down due to ill-thought through legislation intended to punish the ratings agencies.
Wall Street Journal: Bond Sale? Don't Quote Us, Say Credit Firms
Who are the experts again? What the article does not explain is why Dodd and Frank changed the law at the last minute and caused this fallout.
I think it's time for an all-out war on bureaucrats and cureaucracy. My first recommendation is a change in rhetoric: we need to start calling bureaucrats "the parasitic class."
Confidence, not faith. Faith is belief in the face of opposing evidence.
Troy,
As an actual bureaucrat in the Federal government, I take offense at that. We do what the officials elected by the public instruct us to do, they are our management. If you have a problem, take it up with them.
"When it comes to having faith in experts, I yield to no one. I have tons of faith in experts. I just lack faith in experts who require the power of the state standing behind their expertise."
The immorality of their means is vital, but another important difference between the expertise of your dentist and the expertise of the regulator is a Hayekian point: knowledge of time and place. You can't be an expert in running the whole economy, no matter how much schooling you have.
@Hyena: I recommend quitting and taking a job with a slightly more ethical firm. The mafia comes to mind.
BZ,
You are, after all, free to leave our giant HOA if you like. As for my job, it's temporary and part of a Constitutionally-mandated function.
Shove it.