Donald J. Boudreaux - Hypocrites & Half-Wits: A Daily Dose of Sanity from Cafe Hayek

Hypocrites & Half-Wits: A Daily Dose of Sanity from Cafe Hayek
was produced by Free To Choose Press
Erie, Pennsylvania.

Don Boudreaux, Author
James Tusty, Project Leader
Bill Crawford, Aaron Hierholzer, James Tusty, Editors
Neil Gonzalez, Designer
Phil Heidenreich, Image Research Assistant

Copyright 2012 Free To Choose Network

All rights reserved under international and
Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

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Published in the United States by Free To Choose Press, an educational initiative of Free To Choose Network. Free To Choose Network is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 U.S. corporation.

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Ebook ISBN: 978-0-9839687-1-9

Ebook Edition

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Don writes a letter a day to the editor, and he sends out each days letter to his followers via e-mail. If you would like to receive Dons daily e-mails, sign up at www.donaldjboudreaux.com.

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Don has a hotline for those who wish to tell him how much they agree with him, or how much he is an idiot. Call (530) 324-5278 and leave Don a message. He listens to all of them personally.

To Thomas, a young scientist keenly on guard
against hypocrites and half-wits

Many years ago my family ordered me to remove my shoes before sitting down to watch the evening news on television. They feared that Id fling my loafers or sneakers through the TV screen. This fear was justified becauseIm embarrassed to confessI get unduly agitated by rank economic ignorance parading publicly as expert knowledge. Seldom had I spent 30 minutes of any given evening watching the likes of, say, Dan Rather without my wanting to throw my shoe at his face after he uttered some absurd economic fallacy as if it were established and undisputed truth.

The electronic and print mediaand now, of course, also cyberspacehave long been, and continue to be, chock-full of nonsense about economics. And I mean here not advanced economic theory, but, rather, basic and foundational stuff. Pick up almost any newspaper or magazine, or visit almost any news or opinion site on the Internet, and you will find there a dense jungle of economic misunderstandings.

So rather than destroy my familys television, I began venting my frustration by writing letters to editorsand letters to newscasters, news-programming directors, and sometimes even to politicians.

This practice has proven to be more peaceful and, I think, productive than shoe-throwing. Over the past decade or so Ive written close to 5,000 such letters. Most are very shortfewer than 200 wordsand many have been published in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Economist, and other publications, from the august to the now-defunct.

Starting in 2004, somethough by no means allof my letter have appeared at the blog I do with my friend and colleague Russell Roberts, Cafe Hayek (www.cafehayek.com).

But more important than my blog, e-mail has enabled me to accost many of my friends with my daily letters. I keep a long list of e-mail addresses to which I send each of my letters soon after I write it. (If youd like to be added to my e-mail list, Ill be both pleased and honored to sign you up. Just go to www.donaldjboudreaux.com.) These friends often write back with constructive criticisms that have helped me over the years to improve not only my writing but also my own understanding of economics, history, politics, and current events. I thank them all here, deeply.

Several of those friends eventually started telling me You should publish your letters in a book. This advice flattered me, of course, but I couldnt get my mind around just how such a book would work.

Enter Jim Tusty.

Jima successful businessman and filmmakergot on my letters list through our mutual friend Bob Chitester, founder of the Free To Choose Network. It is Jim and Bob who finally persuaded me to compile some of my letters into the book that you now hold in your hands.

More importantly, its Jim who did the lions share of the detailed work necessary to make this book a reality. From narrowing the selection of letters from thousands to 100to compiling many of the materials that appear on each letters facing pageto arranging funding for this project, with much-appreciated help from Bobto, well, nearly every phase of production of the book, Jim has been indispensable. I do not exaggerate.

Truth be known, Jim should be listed as a coauthor.

So my biggest thanks go to Jim. Were I to express those thanks as fully as I should, this Preface would run on way too long. Just know that I know that this book wouldnt exist without Jim Tustys entrepreneurial effort, dedication, skill, and incredibly hard work.

I thank also the genuinely wonderful staff at Greenleaf Book Group, especially Aaron Hierholzer and Bill Crawford. Aarons and Bills enthusiasm for the book, and their unfailingly hard work made the production of this little volume, for me, a real joy.

Other friends to whom I am hopelessly in intellectual and professional debt are too numerous to namebut Ill nevertheless name a few of them, aware that Ill forget many who will then justifiably be miffed at me for not listing them here. So I thank, from the bottom of my heart:

Karol and Thomas above all.

My colleague and co-blogger Russ Roberts, who has taught me so much about economics and about writingas have my colleagues Walter Williams, Jim Bennett, Pete Boettke, Bryan Caplan, Tyler Cowen, Tom Hazlett, Dan Klein, Alex Tabarrok, Dick Wagner, and Larry White.

Each and every one of my other George Mason University colleagues in Economics and in the Law School, whose scholarship and learning inspire me daily.

My current and former studentswho are always the single best source of penetrating questions and feedback.

My former GMU students Liya Palagashvili and Laura Sacher who helped so expertly to prepare the graphs that accompany several of the letters.

John Stossel, who inspired me to (try to) be more creative in expressing myself to audiences of non-economists.

Ditto for Sheldon Richman of the Foundation for Economic Education.

Betsy and Lyle Albaugh, Sarah and Paul Atkins, Christine and John Blundell, Andrea and Shannon Boudreaux, Ruth and Ryan Boudreaux, Katya and Kevin Brancato, Mary and Joel Centanni, Laura and Jim Clancy, Kristina and Ed Crane, Liz and Steve Davies, Helen and Prentiss Davis, Jeanine and Fred Dent, Rebecca and Bill Dunn, Hans Eicholz, Anita and Burt Folsom, Nancy and Ed Grass, Elizabeth and Bob Higgs, Lora and Randy Holcombe, Candace and Vernon Smith, Fran and Fred Smith, Dot and Bruce Yandle, as well as June Arunga, Jim Blasingame, David Boaz, Reuvain Borchardt, Jack Censer, Carrie Conko, Mike Cox, Wayne Crews, Vero de Rugy, Jim Dorn, Kerry Dugas, Bob Ekelund, Ken Elzinga, Bill Field, Darryl Fontaine, David Fontaine, Pierre Garello, Roger Garrison, Nick Gillespie, Walter Grinder, Dan Griswold, David Henderson, Brian Hooks, Sandy Ikeda, Dan Ikenson, Jeff Jacoby, Sallie James, Kristi Kendall, Arnold Kling, Roger Koppl, Dwight Lee, Leonard Liggio, Tibor Machan, Henry Manne, Michelle McAdoo, Fred McChesney, Deirdre McCloskey, Roger Meiners, Andy Morriss, Victor Niederhoffer, Mary Anastasia OGrady, Tom Palmer, John Papola, Mark Perry, Adam Pritchard, Greg Rehmke, David Rose, Alan Russell, Andy Rutten, Nick Schulz, George Selgin, Amity Shlaes, Roger Silk, Kathy Spolarich, Daniele Struppa, Joe Swanson, Mark Thornton, John Tierney, Bob Tollison, Oscar Varela, Eric Wanner, Fred Young, Ryan Young, Marty Zupan, Todd Zywicki, and Many Others Who I Know Im Forgetting.