BELATED READING RECOMMENDATION

Thirty years ago, when Cindy and I moved to Belmont, MA so that she could take up a professorship at MIT, there was a young man living across Garfield Road from us named Ben Friedman. Ben was a cheerful, energetic chap with young children, a member of the Harvard Economics Department. Thirty years later, that young man is Benjamin M. Friedman, a senior Harvard professor and frequent liberal voice on economic matters in The New York Review of Books. I have finally got round to reading Ben's review of two books on the economic crisis in the April 29th issue, and I recommend it to all of you. Those of us a good deal farther on the left than Ben will be tempted to say, "We told you so," and we would be right. But it is good to see some clear and useful words from a former neighbor, so I will content myself with a simple "well done."