Foreword

Thomas Sargent places Patrick Newman in a tradition of American historians—Charles Beard, Forrest McDonald, Richard Hofstadter, and Murray Rothbard—who compress data and look for patterns in how the state is designed and managed. He draws the dividing line between those who read bad policy as unintended error correctable by better administration and those who see a government constituted with excessive powers that will inevitably serve some private interests at the expense of others, closing on Argentina’s industrial policies and their growing appeal among leaders of both US parties.