[T]he next time you hear serious-sounding people explaining the need for fiscal austerity, try to parse their argument. Almost surely, you'll discover that what sounds like hardheaded realism actually rests on a foundation of fantasy, on the belief that invisible vigilantes will punish us if we're bad and the confidence fairy will reward us if we're good. And real-world policy - policy that will blight the lives of millions of working families - is being built on that foundation.

I think Stockman is an interesting sort of amalgam.

The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

The French, unfortunately, actually believe what they say, and that has been very destructive.

You really have to go searching desperately to find any contemporary examples of good, old-fashioned runaway inflation.

If you are a good economist, a virtuous economist, you are reborn as a physicist. But if you are an evil, wicked economist, you are reborn as a sociologist.

Unsustainable situations usually go on longer than most economists think possible. But they always end, and when they do, it's often painful.