Posner the hippie?
Given the dominant role played within the right wing by anti-intellectual blowhards like Rush Limbaugh, it’s easy to forget that there actually are brainy conservatives -- but there are. And few (if any) are brainer than Richard Posner. A judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Posner is credited with being the most cited legal scholar of all time. No one on either side of the political divide denies his brilliance.
Staunchly conservative, Posner helped start the law and economics movement at the University of Chicago. He’s published nearly 40 books in addition to numerous articles, the vast majority of which were written, at least in part, to preach the virtues of unfettered capitalism.
Posner’s conservative credentials include acting as the chief intellectual defender of the Supreme Court majority in the Bush v. Gore case. Although, as a measure of the man’s intellectual honesty, he couldn’t quite bring himself to endorse the Court’s equal protection analysis. He argued, instead, that the Court reached the right decision (from a practical standpoint), but for the wrong reason.
But it’s always been in his near religious dedication to the virtues of deregulated markets that Posner’s made his biggest mark.
That, however, as they say, was then. And now? Welcome Posner the “hippie”:
(Huffington Post) Judge Richard Posner Questions His Free-Market Faith In "A Failure Of Capitalism"
One of the most prominent proponents of free-market capitalism is having second thoughts. Judge Richard A. Posner, a federal appeals court judge who has been called the most cited legal scholar of all time, discussed his doubts and his analysis of the current financial crisis in a wide-ranging interview with the Huffington Post. A longtime proponent of deregulation, the idea that business works best in a free market without burdensome government regulations, Posner began to change his mind when he realized the enormity of the crisis. This change of heart inspired him to write his upcoming book, "A Failure Of Capitalism." Though still a believer in the virtues of capitalism, Posner now emphasizes the importance of government regulations; the need to strengthen the regulatory structure by directly funding authorities rather than the current fee-based model; the dangers of excessive executive compensation, and even expressed support for the idea of changing bankruptcy law to make it easier for homeowners who face foreclosure.Ladies and gentlemen, the earth just moved. From the standpoint of its intellectual underpinnings, free market conservatism is dead. Long live the regulated economy.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Read the latest entry by Chip Ward at Tom Dispatch.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:53 am
When any system goes too far, gets out of balance, causes widespread misery, and is based on greed or incompetence or both, it will collapse. Communism collapsed. Laissez-faire capitalism is collapsing. Judge Posner, unfortunately, is a bit late in his enlightenment.
April 21st, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Old age and treachery…
Nothing is collapsing… but things are changing, this can’t be helped, it is the nature of both nature and humanity. But money is still money, and though the leopards may try to change their spots, they cast the same shadow.
Poor Judge Richard, what a let down! All those tightly reasoned arguments in a heap, buried under the weight of time and reality, exposed as fundamentally flawed, beautiful flights of logical thinking whose only problem was their basic premise, which began with a misjudgement of social character and also contained more than just a little brown nosing on behalf of the interests of his patrons, the Corptocracy.
Aside from the intellectual flourish and his obviously superior credentials, is there really any difference between the Judge’s opinions in the past, and even his new found reality-based conclusions, and the legal excrement contained in the “Torture Memos”, produced by Judge Bybee?
Legal whores… No, I take that back, most whores have more character than men who rent their reputations and honesty…
Dallas112263