Frum: Downgrade the WSJ

Conservative blogger David Frum, a former writer for the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, advocates a downgrade of the conservative bellweather on Frum Forum.

I’m uncomfortably aware that critiquing the Wall Street Journal’s editorial column is a job reserved for himself by The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait – and that Chait does not take kindly to interlopers on his territory. But it’s August, and Chait is taking a partial holiday, no doubt on Martha’s Vineyard with his fellow out-of-touch elitists. And in Chait’s absence, the Journal has launched an attack on Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve that is not only remarkable in its brutal mishandling of fact – but also for its possibly lethal intellectual consequences within the conservative world.

Precisely because conservatives (rightly) hesitate to use aggressive fiscal policy to fight recessions, it is all the more urgent that we appreciate the reach of monetary policy. If we are pushed by ignorance or passion into a wrongheaded monetary policy, then we will have no answer whatsoever to the question: how do we create prosperity and employment in the near term?

Frum goes on to offer a point-by-point rebuttal of the WSJ's fact-free defense of Rick Perry's attack on Bernanke.

--Ballard Burgher