Dartblog

Here are three superlative pieces of journalism which all illustrate, each in its own way, the beauty and wonder of the free market.

The first, from The Atlantic, is what I believe to be the most important published analysis of the present state of the American health care system. “How American Health Care Killed My Father” tells the full story of why America’s health care is so very screwed up, how it got that way, and why President Obama’s socialist reforms would only exacerbate the elements most rotten of all.

The second, from the New Yorker, discusses the outrageous extortion perpetrated by the crook Randi Weingarten and her gang called the United Federation of Teachers on the innocent taxpayers and children of New York City. A fascinating expose, though more than a bit unsettling, for at times it reads like a political thriller set in an absurdist dystopia. (When the New Yorker attacks a teachers union, you know things are bad.)

Finally, here is a piece by Princeton economics professor (and recent Nobel laureate) Paul Krugman on the intellectual history of economics as a field, and how that history has been shaped—and not been shaped—by recessions in general and the current one in particular. It is worth noting that Krugman the academic is much more intelligent and moderate than Krugman the populist who writes biweekly screeds on the op-ed page of the New York Times. This article was written by someone much closer to Krugman the academic, so it spares one the feeling of a hotheaded rant.