The Blog Post That Destroyed Free Speech in America

Mr. Seth Lipsky wishes to register a complaint about the death of political discourse in the United States of America:

To the list of questions the left has sought to place off limits to open debate—global warming, same-sex marriage, campaign finance, abortion—add a startling new topic: monetary reform. And what a scalp has just been claimed.

Alan Greenspan, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades, has pulled out of a conference this summer on monetary reform. He did so May 8, two days after the New York Times published a blog post by Paul Krugman labeling Mr. Greenspan the Fed’s “worst ex-chairman ever.”

Sadly, this is actually Lipsky’s argument — Paul Krugman’s four-paragraph blog post (accurately) summarizing Alan Greenspan’s dismal post-Chairman career has now ended debate about monetary policy in America. Fascinating. It’s almost reassuring to know that the free speech theories of the Sage of Wasilla retain such currency in certain quarters. With notably rare exceptions the arguments that proceed from the premise are always compelling.

Next, I assume Krugman will end debate about supply-side economics by quoting Greenspan’s argument that if we don’t immediately pass huge upper-class tax cuts the national debt will be paid down to quickly. No form of speech, we all know, is more vicious than accurately describing the views of conservatives.