The Future

Brad Delong asks, "The Obama administration is going to be rebuilding and reconstructing five major sectors of the American economy. It has no choice--there is no other option. It has to remake: autos, housing finance, high finance, energy, and--the big one—-health care. On what principles and through what procedures is this extraordinary exercise in structural economic reform policy going to be accomplished?" This sparked the following reflection on my part:

Paging Fredrich Hayek... Because, the truth of the matter is, you hominids can't know what will work. OK, you know how to run a state health-care service, and a state bank. The rest is all changing very rapidly. It's time to start Al Gore's Manhattan Project for alternative energy. The new urban designs, architecture, transit systems, and, of course, energy systems will all come out of that work. Meantime, prop up what you can, but don't get too attached to it; a lot of it is not going to last.