My friend and old classmate Irwin Collier, of the Free University of Berlin, sends me to an open letter to monetary officials warning of the dangers of printing money and debasing the dollar, claiming that these policies will undermine confidence and threaten to create a renewed financial crisis. But it’s not the famous 2010 letter to Ben Bernanke, whose signatories refuse to admit that they were wrong; it’s a letter sent by Columbia economists in 1933 (pdf):

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It’s all there: decrying inflation amid deflation, invocation of “confidence”, a chin-stroking pose of being responsible while urging policies that would perpetuate depression. Those who refuse to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.