In today’s (May 30) Wall St. Journal there is a review of the book “Debtors’ Prison” by the liberal Keynesian Robert Kuttner. The reviewer, like the paper he writes for, is a right wing free marketeer. His assessment of Kuttner’s book is summed up towards the end, where he criticizes Kuttner: “He appropriately highlights the role of credit-rating agencies but seems unaware that government regulations require their use at essentially every large institution. Later he condemns ‘pervasive regulatory corruption’ as a contributor to the crisis yet clings to the belief that the next set of regulators will do better.”

A very valid criticism.

But the reviewer concludes his review: “Not a few of us would prefer to put our faith in sound money and free markets — most of all in the ability of individual consumers and producers to decide matters for themselves.”

I seem to recall that that didn’t work out so great the last time.