Poor Bruce Bartlett.  He’s spent his career trying to be loved, and it just ain’t happening. First he was a Ron Paulian. Then he realized his career would be better served by jumping on the supply-side train. Then he ditched that to jump onto (yes) the Obama train. He was received with yawns instead of huzzahs.

Bob Wenzel reports that Bartlett was just on CNBC (1) claiming the Fed is “sitting on its hands,” (2) calling for massive public-works spending, (3) saying there is no problem with Social Security, (4) saying businessmen who claim they are concerned about government regulations are “full of crap,” and (5) arguing that we need “a little bit of inflation.”

I had a public exchange with Bruce last year that began when he ridiculed Bob Murphy for wanting to debate Paul Krugman; how could Murphy be anybody if Bartlett, who holds a master’s degree in history from Georgetown, hadn’t heard of him?  The thrust of the exchange went like this:

Woods: Bruce, are you familiar with Peter Klein? Here’s his cv.  As for a publication record, I can’t believe you gave people a hard time and then trotted out that cv! Bob Murphy has been published in most of those publications, too, and he’s also had two articles in the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, refereed by Paul Samuelson. PAUL SAMUELSON. He’s also just over half your age. Is that good enough for you, commissar?

My scholarly publication record is far more substantial than yours, especially given that you are at least 20 years my senior. So you can drop the nonsense about what a crank I am, etc….

To everyone else: all of you know I am not the boastful sort. But Bartlett, a petty, envious middle-aged man who spends his time insulting people half his age on Facebook, needed to be put in his place good and hard. His smear tactics are completely indefensible [Bartlett had been calling me names], and he needed to be smacked down. That mission is now accomplished.