Lew Rockwell played a big role in my intellectual development, so it’s always a bit unpleasant to criticize him, but lately he hasn’t been making it easy on himself.  In this latest instance, Rockwell posted a link to a Daily Mail article on British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent address to the Conservative Party conference.  In his commentary, Rockwell stated that Cameron’s speech had to be revised because “[i]t had originally called for people to pay off their credit card debts–excellent advice, for once–but kept economists pointed out that everyone must be a perpetual debt slave to the banks.”

Rockwell was right that the speech had to be revised, but it wasn’t for the reason he provided.  According to the article (revisions in bold):

The original draft read: ‘The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That means households – all of us – paying off the credit card and store card bills.’

Today he actually said: ‘The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That‘s why households – all of us – are paying off the credit card and store card bills.’

Yes, it was a revision, but it was clearly not a revision to replace “unkeynesian truth” as Rockwell put it.  On the contrary, the speech was revised to clarify that people are already paying off their debts, and that the PM is not implying that the people need to do something they’re not already doing on their own. 

Libertarians are already looked at as oddballs.  Twisting the truth and misrepresenting the opposition is no way to win them over.

Tweet