Against the Flow: Reflections of an Individualist

Against the Flow: Reflections of an Individualist by Samuel Brittan (Atlantic Books, 385 pp., [pounds sterling]25) Literate writing on political economy is considered by many a contradiction of terms, but longtime readers of the Financial Times know better. For the past three decades the columnist Samuel Brittan has served up the finer points of macroeconomic analysis to a predominantly British audience in prose that is clear, tightly reasoned, and rarely burdened by technical jargon.

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The British publisher Atlantic Books has released a compilation of Sir Samuel's essays, speeches, testimony to public bodies, and other musings over the past several years. Whether arguing the advantages of floating exchange rates, weighing the pros and cons of accepting a common European currency, or urging the indexation of the age of retirement, Brittan illuminates key current issues from the perspective of one who is unapologetic about his belief in the virtues of market-oriented capitalism.

The book's title, Against the Flow, reflects a philosophical outlook fundamentally at odds with prevailing elite opinion. For example, in reviewing a book advocating single-mindedly for an equality of material conditions, he points out that "equality serves as an ersatz religion for much of the academic left in Great Britain and the U.S. Ivy League." And in one of the volume's most thoughtful pieces, a paper entitled "In Defense of Individualism," Brittan, much of whose family perished in the Holocaust, describes "the danger of collectivism [as] that of attributing a superior value to collective entities over and above those who compose it," an error, he points out, that "reached its apotheosis in the state worship of the Nazi and communist regimes."

Regardless of his topic, Brittan nearly always manages to keep focused on the big picture, and takes both ideas and their consequences seriously. The book's best section profiles leading economic thinkers of the 20th century, including Keynes, Hayek, and Friedman. (There are also separate profiles of Norman Angell, Bertrand Russell, and Ayn Rand.) Also included is a speech Brittan delivered in 2000 offering some basic economic principles that "might be of value to people with no particular interest in mastering techniques or passing exams in the subject," adding that while intuition and common sense are more valuable to policymakers than formal models, most of their decisions have to be made by fallible human beings "without there being a sage like Keynes or Friedman on the spot."

Brittan brings a clear-headed analysis to topics like globalization--calling for more rather than less of it in the form of the removal of restrictions on labor mobility--and corruption, whose upsurge in the West he attributes to the increased interrelationship between the public and private sectors.

His views on foreign policy place Brittan somewhat uncomfortably in the realist camp, albeit one concerned about human rights violations and repelled by appeasement. In a column written just two weeks after the 9/11 attacks entitled "The Danger of Too Much Understanding," he notes with disgust that "it has not taken long for the appeasers to come out of the woodwork."

Although Brittan's writing is geared primarily to a European audience, American publishers interested in elevating our own debates on many public issues might consider--if they haven't already--making this volume available here.

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