Readers have all heard by now of the statements by the EU President and soon to be ex leader of the Czech Government. That the US Stimulus policy will destabilize the international financial system and put on the "highway to hell" or some such. See details here.

Of course it is amazing that the leader of a major European Nation could display such casual ignorance of modern economics and the history of the Great Depression but the readers must give the guy a break. He was raised under Communism.

Where he saw gross inefficiency and self serving political manipulation passed off as "central planning". Where generally low standards of living were passed off as "equality" while the political elite enjoyed privilege in their gated communities far from the common people.

Naturally the man has an emotional revulsion for government intervention in the economy.

Worse still he was never given the tools that he needed to understand the economy. Instead he was force fed 19th century economic thought as passed on by a particularly unlearned group of early 20th century revolutionaries.

Massive early consumption of this left wing drivel can be severely damaging to the unformed mind, even when it is voluntary. When consumption is forced and when the outcomes in reality are so at variance with the doctrines propounded the mind can be rendered completely unsuited to rational economic thought.

In most case the damage takes the form of doctrinaire adherence to the worship of selfishness and a supreme belief in the efficacy of "the invisible hand". This often produces "thinkers" like Ayn Rand whose works, along with those of Milton Friedman, were widely disseminated by various US groups through Eastern Europe during the 1980's

The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend.