Centralization is appealing because it lets us identify good intentions, and people tend to infer intentions from outcomes—so after Katrina the criticism personalized the failure (Bush 'intends to do bad') rather than recognizing structural confusion, federalism conflicts, and noisy signals; resisting this intention-from-outcome inference is part of the economic way of thinking.
causalpending
Speaker
Peter BoettkeEvidence Quote
“they infer intentions from outcomes it's a standard sort of way that you do these things and I think that that part of economics is to resist that part of the lesson of economics”
Created: 6/17/2026, 10:29:22 AM
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