Selling Off The Swamp and Other Nonsense

https://substack.com/home/post/p-159546801

Normally, I figure the best way to explain anything in economics is to reduce it to a level that I can understand. As I’ve been repeatedly reminded by former students, that’s generally not worth spending time on.

But my former colleague Shana McDermott has written a piece on this DOGE nonsense–at least the public goods aspect of it, that is so clear and compelling that I want to let her, as they say in Mexico, tener la palabra. This is from her substack site, and yeah, I hope the link to it works. I think it does. Because, honestly, it explains in plain English what I suspect most people, including many alumni of Econ 101 classes, don’t get from this dogmatic “let the market sort it out” stuff. Shana is, from what I could say, probably a bit more conservative than I am, but she’s certainly a Hell of a lot better trained, holding a PhD in Environmental Economics from Wyoming, which is an absolutely top program in the field. And it shows. Please, please spare fifteen minutes to read Shana’s piece. It is crystal clear and shows why this Trumponomics is tendentious nonsense–and typically an excuse to do something that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH EFFICIENCY.

This is the way it worked in the former Soviet Union, believe me–and to an extent it happened in Mexico as well. You want to reinforce the oligarchy, or just create one? Well, Trump is the blueprint with Musk. But I don’t think most Americans get it. And they are throwing away an enormous stock of physical and intellectual capital so that a few people can make a fortune off it. But you have to read her carefully, because she gets into the weeds. You know: how this really works.

So, if you cannot link to her site, write me, and I’ll get you the link. It’s that important, and that good. Professor McDermott has the floor.