Janice Brown, Frank Michelman, and Teaching Economics Without the Idea of Scarcity.–

David Bernstein notes that Stuart Taylor criticizes Janice Rogers Brown merely for citing Richard Epstein’s Takings book in an opinion, a form of guilt by association. Bernstein notes that in the same opinion Brown also cites liberal Frank Michelman. This reminds me of something Michelman said to me in the 1980s when he came down from Harvard to lecture at the University of Connecticut: that he had proposed teaching a course on economics at Harvard, but without the idea of scarcity. Now that’s an odd and unusual idea that is definitely “out of the mainstream”–economics without the idea of scarcity! I know that this sounds like a joke, but I assure you Michelman seemed to be quite serious, and was a bit defensive when we conveyed our skepticism.