I’m naturally sympathetic to popular uprisings … the Tea Party and Occupy _______, for example.

Nothing ever improves unless people get passionate.

On the other hand, both those movements have been mostly irrational and incoherent. Especially Occupy.

Occupy what?

Here’s the first list of complaints I can understand:

• a failure to price public goods (clean air, water, etc.) effectively
• high levels of inequality
• “the provision and distribution of medical care”
• undervaluing of “the welfare of unborn generations”
• financial crises

Those are from Economist Kenneth Rogoff.

Rogoff, not surprisingly, feels that free market Capitalism is the best solution for each:

… I am often asked if the recent global financial crisis marks the beginning of the end of modern capitalism. It is a curious question, because it seems to presume that there is a viable replacement waiting in the wings. The truth of the matter is that, for now at least, the only serious alternatives to today’s dominant Anglo-American paradigm are other forms of capitalism. …

Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?

Government regulatory reform is needed, not any experiment with Communism.

Why are the USA, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Italy — to name a few — so much worse off than their economic neighbours?

That’s the question.

(via Freakonomics)