A friend tells me it is now common for high schools and colleges to use the documentary Inside Job to teach students about the financial crisis. There’s even a guide for teachers. I can report that there is a project in the works to make my Meltdown into a documentary, so we are doing our part to fight back.
There are two trends at work thanks to the Panic of 2008. One is the trend we all expected: demonization of the free market, and calls for further state empowerment. But the other is the trend toward interest in Austrian economics and the Mises Institute. This is due in large part to Ron Paul, of course. All of a sudden discussion of the Fed, and forbidden questions about it — like how life might go on in its absence — are popping up everywhere. This Saturday, for instance, Purdue University is hosting a conference on the crisis that will take a highly critical view of the Fed’s role; this has not typically been the focus of such conferences in the past.
Which of the two trends will be victorious? No one knows, so fight anyway.
2:00 pm on April 17, 2012 Email Thomas E. Woods Jr.