TYLER COWEN: lessons from the New Deal era.

WE’RE NOT LED BY THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST:

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

“It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI’s civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned,” said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

“How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don’t understand the American experience?” he added.

Good point. Best bit:

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to “supervise the first televised presidential debates.”

Good grief.

FROM ILYA SOMIN, praise for Obama’s appointment of Anjan Mukherjee. “Anjan is a very smart guy. He had probably the best academic record in the history of Lexington High up to that time, and was also a formidable debater (one of the top 10-20 in the country during our junior and senior years). Obviously, he has gone on to bigger and better things since then, including reaching a high position at Blackstone at a very young age. Anjan’s political views and mine have always been substantially different; so his appointment doesn’t do much to alleviate my fears that the Obama Administration and Democratic Congress will implement a major expansion of government. Nonetheless, I congratulate Anjan on the well-deserved honor, and wish him well.”