Nudge Against the Fudge

Newsweek, June, 2008 by George F. Will

Dare we hope that Barack Obama shares the ‘libertarian paternalism’ of two of his former University of Chicago colleagues?

Barack Obama is a “choice architect” aiming to implement “libertarian paternalism.” He might not know that he is; he might embrace the practice without understanding the theory. It is adumbrated in the new book “Nudge” by two occasional and informal advisers to Obama, both of whom are former colleagues of his at the University of Chicago, Richard H. Thaler of the Graduate School of Business, and Cass R. Sunstein of the Law School.

Beginning this autumn, Sunstein, while retaining a connection with Chicago, will teach primarily at Harvard, an act of downward mobility that illustrates a central tenet of “Nudge,” that even intelligent and...

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