In reading the posts on Bruce Bartlett, I am reminded of an email exchange that he and I had a while back in which he told me that his economic viewpoints were close to those of Irving Fisher, who blamed the Great Depression on deflation. We might recall that Fisher lost a fortune by following his own theories.

Bartlett seems to me to be pretty much the creation of the Beltway in which people there come to believe that Washington, D.C., is the center of the universe, and that if productive people around the country (and even the world) are forced to ensure a high standard of living for the Beltway crowd, then there will be a “trickle down” effect. And, if not, the rest of us can take comfort in knowing that our “leaders” are living in splendor.

At any rate, Bartlett long ago abandoned any pretense of being for free markets. To him, an economy is something that the government manipulates for itself.