Obama's Fatal Conceit

Politico is out with a few excerpts from the new Ron Suskind book, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President. Suskind is no economist (much less an Austrian). His poor economic understanding causes him to weave his story in odd directions, often ignoring time bombs he has dropped. (See my review of his book, The Price of Loyalty)

That said, he is good with facts and the inside scoop. They just need to be understood in better context. Here's an important Politico excerpt:

O]n February 14 [2011], the president meditated on the most important things he’d learned as president … ‘The area in my presidency where I think my management and understanding of the presidency evolved most, and where I think we made the most mistakes, was less on the policy front and more on the communications front. I think one of the criticisms that is absolutely legitimate about my first two years was that I was very comfortable with a technocratic approach to government … a series of problems to be solved. …Carter, Clinton and I all have sort of the disease of being policy wonks … I think that if you get too consumed with that you lose sight of the larger issue …

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