February 5, 2007

David Frum has written a suitably impassioned riposte to the slurs against the American Enterprise Institute that have been circulating in parts of the blogosphere. The piece is worth reading even if you have not followed those slurs, in part because of its shrewd observation that organized campaigns against Big Oil, Big Tobacco, etc., are commonly disguised ways of imposing taxes or regulations on the consumers of those products, which the industry itself is usually quite capable of living with once the dust settles.

On a personal note, I was at AEI for several years in the early 1980s before coming to the Manhattan Institute, and my experience at that time was exactly like the one David describes when he writes about his more recent fellowship there:

I have never in my life been involved in an organization with more respect for intellectual freedom or greater commitment to intellectual integrity. Nobody in all that time has ever breathed a word to me suggesting that I should take this side or that of a particular debate.

More: Jonathan Adler @ Volokh.