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… is from page 85 of the May 9th, 2020, draft of the important forthcoming monograph from Deirdre McCloskey and Alberto Mingardi, The Illiberal and Anti-Entrepreneurial State of Mariana Mazzucato:
We enthusiasts for the invisible hand, made visible every time a loaf of bread is miraculously available for you at the grocery store, are often accused of mysticism—Mazzucato attacks us for believing in “myths.” To which we reply, Mythmaker, unmyth thyself. We have the logic and the data and the loaf of bread on our side, and Mazzucato has nothing.
DBx: Yep. Every advocate of industrial policy ultimately is, on this matter, a mystic. He or she has nothing to justify his or her assumption that government officials will somehow know how to allocate resources better than resources are allocated in competitive markets.