Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

I point these sorts of things out periodically because I think a lot of people, even people who follow politics very closely, fail to understand just how low the standard of conservative discourse is, even at mainstream outlets like NRO. The debate is just dominated by ignorant cranks. It's frightening that this is the intellectual movement that dominates one of our two major political parties.

Much of Argentina's decline in relative economic performance can be attributed to deleterious conditions for capital accumulation after 1913. In the first phase (pre-1913), the success of the Belle ?poque was due to spectacular rates of accumulation. In the second phase (1913-1930s), low domestic savings rates constrained the rate of capital accumulation. In the third phase (1930s-1950s), import- substitution policies were implemented and the relative price of key imported capital goods rose sharply. Retardation ensued: at first because of insufficient saving; later because price disincentives channeled funds away from investment activities which are the precursor of growth. Published: Revista de Historia Economics, Volume 12, no. 3 (Autumn 1994).