Market Correction has become one of my favorite blogs. Don Boudreaux (George Mason and Cafe Hayek) and Andrew Morriss (Case Western Reserve University) post letters to the editors that they have written to editors at newspapers and magazines correcting instances of economic illiteracy. Here is a taste from a recent letter from Boudreaux in response to a Washington Post story on gas prices:
Dear Editor:
Former presidential candidate John Anderson, like Washington Post columnist David Ignatius and several other pundits, is confident that energy markets are suffused with chronic over-optimism (“Pain at the Pump,� Letters, June 5th). “Gas prices are too low,� Mr. Anderson asserts.
If suppliers, traders, and merchants in energy markets indeed are so ill-informed about the state of oil and gas supplies that even non-experts such as former Members of Congress and op-ed writers notice their error, surely Mr. Anderson, Mr. Ignatius, and others who are convinced that the price of oil is too low will load up on crude-oil futures and make enormous fortunes.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Check it out. I love the idea. It might be fun to incorporate a similar feature on TOTM. I am sure that journalists do not have a monopoly on economic illiteracy.