According to a post by Peter Boekke on Coordination Problem, "Thinking without writing is day-dreaming". Actually that is attributed to Richard Wagner and is pretty much the reason I decided I need to start blogging.
In any case, I ended up on Coordination Problem after listening to EconTalk which has a big Hayekian tendency, which then ties in with the Austrian School of which Boekke is apparently big proponent, and for which he recently was given a write-up in the Wall Street Journal (pointed to by Aid Watch I think).
I find something a bit worrying about the whole liberal/libertarian slant if that means getting into bed with Thatcher (although being in Belgium now I can actually appreciate what she has done for UK efficiency at least!) or going the whole hog on minimal government. However, I do like the admiration for the coordination problem - how do all these goods get produced in the right numbers, by so many different operators, across so many countries, for clients in so many places? There are clearly some lessons somewhere for development policy given that underdevelopment can essentially be viewed as a lack of coordination and of information to facilitate that coordination, as well as the high transaction costs involved. I have the feeling that although Easterly kind of follows this line, there is more to it than he has picked up with his searchers and planners. Actually, that relates to another post after I read Seeing Like a State by James C Scott.....
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