Today's Wall Street Journal on Mankiw's new book

["William S. Lear" <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In a revolting editorial disguised as a book review, the Wall Street
Journal today published, on p. A18, the thoughts of Mark Skousen, who
celebrates Mankiw's new textbook as a "counterrevolutionary" work which
"defeats" Keynesianism and puts "classical economics back at the
forefront, where it belongs".  Mankiw, apparently undeterred by the
1980s, "approvingly quotes Milton Friedman" that "inflation is always
and everywhere a monetary phenomenon".  One other gem discerned by
Skousen in Mankiw's new book is that "Unemployment is caused not by
greedy industrialists, but by minimum wage laws, collective
bargaining, unemployment insurance and other regulations that raise
the cost of labor."

Ah the joys of the ruling class---slap some propaganda between two
covers, throw in some math and graphs, sell it as a textbook for
millions (dollars and students), and get celebrated by the largest
circulating newspaper in America.


Bill