Financial Meltdown Explainer with Arnold Kling

by Will Wilkinson on September 29, 2008

In this week’s Free Will, I get Bernanke classmate and former Freddie Mac and Fed economist Arnold Kling to explain to me how the heck we got in this sorry situation. I learned a ton. Thanks to Arnold, I was able to sound like I knew what I was talking about at a party Saturday night. Now you can too!

[UPDATE: If you are looking at this on your feed reader and you see Jonah Goldberg and Peter Beinart above, I don't know why. It's correct on my blog. So click through to the actual post or to the BHTV page.]

Greg N.

I worship that Winston tried to offer his opinions, too.

Todd

Will, towards the end of your conversation with Arnold, you discuss the reality of our governance structure which places effective control in the hands of a "technocratic elite." You also offer that you prefer this situation to the alternative of pure majoritarianism. I wonder if this preference is strictly relative. Do you think a free banking policy could be instituted such that interest rates and currency standards were determined by the dispersed decision of millions as opposed to considered opinions of a few?