"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." ~ H.L. Mencken
The Case for Big Government
"A book entitled The Case for Big Government has a very poor chance of obtaining favorable notice in The Mises Review. But with my usual exemplary fairness, I resolved not to condemn the book because its thesis contradicted my own views. What if the author has arrived at new arguments that, even if they do not succeed in changing the mind of a confirmed libertarian, at least command our respect? And can one dismiss altogether the possibility that he will succeed in making his case? The author, after all is no rank amateur but a respected contributor to the New York Review of Books and a fellow of the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. Alas, Jeff Madrick is out of luck. His book rests on a fundamental fallacy, and advocates of the free market will profit from the book only through analysis of its mistakes."
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