As I carried out my usual early-morning browsing, this caught my eye.

It's from the comments section of a blog where economist Dean Baker was invited to participate in an on-line salon discussion of his new book "False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy".  This comment is the first one by Baker in response to a question.

As an economist, I find it incredibly ironic because there is a large literature on the importance of being able to fire workers who mess up on the job.

However, when I raise firing in the context of the economists and regulators who missed the housing bubble and therefore created the basis for the economy’s collapse, people invariably think I am joking.

When I convince them that I am serious, they think that I am being vindictive.

We have created a situation in which everyone is expected to responsible for their actions, except those on top.

This certainly applies in economics, but as you suggest it also applies in foreign policy. Even if we can’t necessarily get even to agree with propositions like torture is wrong, anyone who claims to be a foreign policy expert and didn’t realize that the war in Iraq was going to be long and bloody should be in a new line of work. But, the elites get this it’s okay to be wrong card.

This is a great populist issue. We have this aura of expertise that is based on credentials, not performance. Progressives should not be shy about ridiculing highly credentialed incompetents. They tend to run the country.

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