Empirical Rationalist or Libertarian Crank? Or a rose by any other name . . .

Lots of good notes in today's JEP links by Arnold Kling.  I especially liked his concluding observation:

In general, economic publications have a very strong bias in favor of papers that show what government can do to solve problems. My takes reflect the fact that I have lived long enough to see urban poverty, mental illness, childhood education deficiencies, and “problems with our health care system” manage to survive in spite of all of these well-researched solutions. Or maybe I’m just an old libertarian crank