The March of Folly, Part 3: Political Leaders, like all leaders, are first hired to do a particular job, By Publius

In this column I discuss a second explanation of why political leaders so often pursue policies that damage the economies of the nations they rule. I argued that, at first glance, such behaviour is puzzling, since economic progress delivers substantial gains in political power. However, the incumbent leader may not be expert in how to remedy the situati…