Piada de economistas... e de historiadores (para connoisseurs...)

Recolhida numa lista de história econômica, com a gentil permissão dos autores:

Roy Weintraub writes:

"We decided that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we would be pleased to act as members of a broad left-wing conspiracy to turn America into a French-loving high taxation socialist state, while on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays we would take part in the vast right-wing conspiracy to arm America and send all the leftist liberals back to Russia. We also decided that on Sundays we would drink beer and watch football."

And on the 7th Day, God invented humor, to keep us from each other's throats.
About time for some, and thank you, Roy.

As to French-loving, it is worth remembering that our Founding Fathers were mostly Francophiles, before and after the Revolution. Even Washington, the conservative, allied with Rochambeau, Lafayette, and deGrasse to trap Cornwallis at Yorktown. Jefferson, Franklin, and other authors of the U.S. Constitution consorted with Quesnay, and many Physiocrats, plus Turgot the tutor of Adam Smith. Turgot's Reflexions is a terse masterpiece of early political economy. He might even be considered the father of the Commerce Clause of our constitution, which accomplished for us what he had sought in France. Even Alexander Hamilton had a French mother. So those who idolize the Founders and revile the French have some reconciling to do.
--
E. Roy Weintraub
Professor of Economics
Fellow, Center for the History of Political Economy
Duke University
www.econ.duke.edu/~erw/erw.homepage.html