Sunday, April 13, 2008
Narratives
John Dawson counts the pages of the Code of Federal Regulations and finds that they grow every year. Clint Bolick has documented the parallel growth of local government in the U.S.But a new "narrative" is upon us -- that today's credit market problems are the result of excessive government deregulation in recent years. Peter Goodman echoes this one in today's NY Times ("A Fresh Look at the Apostle of Free Markets").
How much has been written about the New Deal curing the Great Depression? About how the depression was caused by "market excesses?" I recall Doris Kearns Goodwin once explaining to the audience of PBS' Jim Lehrer News that the 1930s downturn was caused by "inequity" during the 1920s. Such is the way of narratives.
