Morgan Stanley’s David Bahnsen, a confirmed Bushite, doesn’t like Ron Paul. We get it. He does like Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton, which gives you a sense of what his endorsements are worth. He supports the bipartisan foreign-policy consensus, and holds fairly conventional views about most things.
Bahnsen was a committed Greenspanian all through the various bubbles. He did not read or care about the Austrians, though he did once recommend Mises’ Human Action. If only he had read chapter 20, on the business cycle.
Thus when things came crashing down, and the people Bahnsen had contemptuously dismissed as cranks were proven right, he may have gotten a little testy.
Here’s what a Greenspan skeptic had to say ten years ago. It is the kind of analysis you will not find anywhere in Bahnsen’s published work, which takes an altogether conventional view of the Fed and its powers and abilities.
Gary North took aim at Bahnsen not long ago. It is a killer piece. Bahnsen’s reply speaks for itself. Do not listen to this crank, he says. North is simply unhappy with his life. (If I had thousands of people paying $15 per month to read my articles and participate in my discussion forums, I’d be quite happy.) Nevermind that the crank was and is exactly right. He is insane. No one cares about him. I work for Morgan Stanley. Everyone cares what I think. And so on.
Bahnsen may reply to this post and he may not. If he does reply, I know what he’ll say. Woods is also a crank. Woods does not work for Morgan Stanley. Woods is not entitled to an opinion. To inoculate myself against this, I link to my about page.