In praise of Hayek

Just links, this time because it is worth reading the articles rather than odd quotes from them. Max Borders in the Washington Examiner and Monty Pelerin on American Thinker talk about Hayek's importance and the need to revisit his ideas. My one quibble is with people who say The Road to Serfdom is difficult. I am most certainly not an economist but found that slim volume exceptionally easy to read. But if you really do not want to spend any time crunching words, here is the cartoon version.

The Obama effect

Hope and change is working. Take it from me. Every bookshop now has posters of Ayn Rand and copies of "Atlas Shrugged", a staggeringly dull novel, well displayed. (A tip to those who do not know: read Rand's essays. They are shorter and the ideas with which one cannot quarrel, are more pithy and coherent.)

Of course, the fact that we have three socialist main-stream parties in this country helps.

Now we have news that Friedrich Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" is selling like hotcakes. Heh!

Good news (after a fashion)

On the day we remember Friedrich Hayek because of his 110th birthday, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit reminds us that his book sales are also getting a boost from President Obama and his Administration. This is probably becoming true in Britain as well, though we always lag behind our cousins over the Pond. As for Ayn Rand's novels and, in particular, "Atlas Shrugged", its growing popularity is beginning to be attested by anecdotal evidence as well as sales figures.