Most modern capitalist societies have both independent central banks and independent constitutional courts—and have them for similar reasons.
Friday Roundup, October 11th
- Edmund Burke studies: Bruce Frohnen makes an appearance in our feature review this week and takes a new book on Edmund Burke to task:
In a rather facile first chapter, “Burke in Brief: A ‘Philosophical’ Primer,” Maciag goes further, dismissing Burke as a political philosopher by asserting that “whatever ‘philosophy’ Burke expounded was extracted by others from his pamphlets, letters, and orations, which were produced in the heat of political battle.” Minimizing Burke’s explicitly philosophical and aesthetic works, Maciag also eschews engagement with the substantial literature on the philosophical underpinnings of prudence and the commitment to tradition (one need only mention Michael Oakeshott in this context). Thus, Maciag allows himself to forego any search for a deeper consistency when he comes across seemingly contradictory positions in Burke’s work, further allowing himself to treat all of Burke’s interpreters as more or less self-serving or “entrepreneurial.”
- Jeffrey Hummel at Econ Lib: What the Fed can and can’t do regarding interest rates.
- Joel Alicea in National Affairs: Real Judicial Restraint.
- Is it The End of Russia?
- Nick Rosenkranz on things we shouldn’t forget: James Madison wants the House of Representatives to win the shutdown.
- Gerald Russello reads liberalism’s greatest critic.