It comes as something of a surprise that Posner, a doyen of the market-oriented law-and-economics movement, should deliver a roundhouse punch to the proposition that markets are self-correcting. It might also seem odd that a federal appellate judge (and University of Chicago law lecturer) would be among the first out of the gate with a comprehensive book on the financial crisis — if, that is, the judge were any other judge. But Posner is the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s successor as the country’s most omnivorous and independent-minded public intellectual. By now, his dozens of books just about fill their own wing in the Library of Congress.
Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan. Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose. Looks like only yesterday. Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.
I heard him interviewed on NPR or MSNBC -- he also is or was a card carrying CATO Institute conservative which is even more amazing.
ReplyDeleteI notice he says "A Failure of Capitalism," which would appear to indicate he doesn't see it as a total failure.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall his interview -- I think it was Olbermann who pressed him -- he thinks that government needs to step in and regulate markets because they are incapable of regulating themselves, a huge philosophical switch for someone who apparently once believed exactly the opposite.
ReplyDeleteAs the review you posted notes, "people made decisions that were individually rational but collectively irrational.... 'We are learning,' Posner writes, 'that we need a more active and intelligent government to keep our model of a capitalist economy from running off the rails.'”