Barack Obama has lately been telling his audiences that the current economic turmoil is due to Republican economic philosophy that has left people without protective regulations. It’s just campaign blather, of course. There has been little or no deregulation since the Reagan years and the financial market regulations we have mostly make things worse.

Well timed to counter the demagoguery is this piece by George Mason University professor Tyler Cowen, which is actually in the New York Times (but in the business section).