I have done a podcast, a Q&A, with Michael R. Strain: here. He is an economist, working at the American Enterprise Institute. One of his titles there is “Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy.” We begin our podcast by talking about Burns — an impressive fellow. A very big deal when I was younger. Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Eisenhower. Counselor to Nixon. Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Ambassador to West Germany.
Mike Strain grew up in the Kansas City area. One of my questions for him is: How did you arrive at your views (which are pro-market, pro-liberty, etc.)? What made you you?
When he was a kid, Mike read the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov. (Don’t tell him, but I had never heard of them. I was always allergic to sci-fi. But some of the best thinkers I know were shaped by Asimov, Robert Heinlein, et al.) Also, he went to a Jesuit prep school, where they prized education: knowledge for its own sake. And you were to use that knowledge to build a better world.
Is that contradictory? Knowledge for its own sake, but applied toward a better world? We might discuss that another day.
In high school, Mike encountered a teacher of writing, who made it click for him: the art, or craft, of writing. This made communication a pleasure.
Then, in college, Mike sort of stumbled into Econ 101. On the first day, the professor said, “What is the socially optimal amount of pollution in the world?” The consensus in the room was: zero. Then the professor challenged that. Young Strain was fascinated.
In our podcast, we talk about various issues. One of Strain’s books is The American Dream Is Not Dead (But Populism Could Kill It). What is the American Dream? What is populism?
Toward the end of our podcast, I tell him a story. Throughout the ’80s, Michael Kinsley was predicting a “long hot summer.” That’s because we Reaganites were committing social offenses (in his view). But the long hot summer never came. (It certainly came in 2020.) Kinsley sort of poked fun at himself for this, which I admired.
Well, people like me have been saying, for a long, long time, that there will be a reckoning. The federal budget deficit is sky high. The national debt is sky high. Entitlement programs are unsustainable. And yet, the reckoning has not come. Maybe people like me should shut up about it?
Strain says, in brief, that there are two kinds of reckoning. (1) There is a scratching at your door. You open it. An angry bear comes in, destroying your house. (2) There are termites in the woodwork, eating away at the foundation of your house, day after day, month after month. You don’t notice it. But it’s happening.
We got termites, says Strain.
Again, for our Q&A, go here.