Don Watkins — coauthor of Free Market Revolution and Equal is Unfair ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvqK5X6LFg ) — has posted some some excellent comments on the GREAT John Allison for Treasury Secretary:
Trump is apparently considering the great John Allison for Treasury secretary. I don’t have a definite view about whether John should accept the position if offered. There are good arguments going both ways (and in any case I assume he isn’t going to base his decision on Facebook posts).
But one thing I do want to comment on: the parallels some are making to Alan Greenspan. There are certainly lessons we should learn from Greenspan’s career, but…
- Greenspan took on an *illegitimate* job as the head of the Fed. Head of Treasury is legitimate.
- How much Greenspan ever truly understood and valued Objectivism is debatable. With John, it isn’t.
- Washington didn’t corrupt Greenspan. He actively sought out power and importance–whatever convictions he held always took a back seat. John’s achievements have come from living by his convictions.
- The biggest problem with Greenspan is not that others blamed his failures on capitalism (and Ayn Rand)–it’s that *he* blamed his failure on capitalism.
Finally, I’ll just note that Trump’s failures will be blamed on capitalism no matter what. We can’t avoid that. We can only counter it.