Readers who share our interest in F.A. Hayek may be interested in David Warsh's review essay on three books about the financial crisis, including Gillian Tett's Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe. Writes Mr. Warsh:
she was writing a morality tale. Early on she sets up Mark Brickell, of J.P. Morgan, as the fall guy, a Hayek-quoting free-market extremist who asserts that "markets can correct excess better than any government." He becomes head of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, successfully lobbies against regulation, and as late as the spring of 2008 is seen to be arguing that "market discipline has guided the derivatives business better than regulation has steered housing finance."
It's always the Hayek-quoting that gives away the free market extremists, isn't it? Ms. Tett is to be the new managing editor of the Financial Times's U.S. edition.
