A battle of overly influential nerds

These battles happen often - in science, medicine, business and many other fields. The rest of the world either joins in, waits and watches, or is subject to gross misinformation as the battle rages. The health care debates are a case in point, although those with the greatest bark are not the nerds, but the idiots. This post, though, is about the economics debate which has taken aim at a standard bearer of our learning - free market capitalism.

When Adam Smith wrote his book, he was not the only "economist" in existence. Yet his story survived and we relegated the notions of others, like Hobbes, to philosophy. Now, the debate is back. Milton Friedman has found his match, and his match wants to be heard. Joseph Stiglitz is not a 'nobody'. In fact, he's a nobel laureate. But in his views, government regulation is necessary, and must absolutely be a part of a well functioning economy.

Now, George Soros, who, ironically made his money as a financier on the free market, wants to fund studies which promote government regulation and other, older economic theories which have languished. When our academic White House, which is faced with a number of knotty questions, is struggling to understand which theoretical viewpoint to embrace, we have a problem.

George is to the rescue.